Claremont — Junior Zach O’Brien tossed a two-hitter and the offense scratched out a couple of runs as the Stevens High baseball team advanced through round one of the New Hampshire Division III playoffs with a 2-0 win over Fall Mountain on Tuesday night at Barnes Park.

The win sends the Cardinals into the second round, which will pit the 14th-seeded Cardinals at third-seeded Belmont on Thursday; the teams did not meet in the regular season.

There were just five hits in the game, as O’Brien and Fall Mountain’s Matt Raymond kept the bats in check. O’Brien threw 88 pitches, walked three and struck out five in winning. Raymond, somewhat of a surprise starter over Kendal Heath, who gave the Cardinals fits during the two regular season games between the teams, was nearly as sharp as he gave up two hits with two walks and four strikeouts. He went five innings, with Heath pitching the sixth.

There were missed opportunities on both sides, but a pivotal part of the win was the Stevens defense, which had only one error, but it nearly cost the Cards.

For a while, it looked like the only run of the game was going to be recorded following a catcher’s interference call. In the Stevens first, Cardinals leadoff batter Noah Spaulding reached when the Fall Mountain catcher tipped his bat on a 2-1 pitch and he was given first base. He was sacrificed to second by Drew Grenier and scored on Coby Hussey’s looping single to right.

That run stood as the only tally of the game until the fifth, when the Cardinals started scratching again to pick up their second run as freshman Derrek Stanhope singled, stole second, went to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch. And that was the offense for the night.

O’Brien knew that he had to be around the plate as walks have been a little bugaboo for him this season. “Coach (Paul Silva) had a lot of faith in me to give me the starting assignment, and and I knew I couldn’t walk a lot of guys and I would need some help from the defense,” O’Brien said.

As for the defense, Stevens shortstop Noah Spaulding had four assists in the first two innings and there was one big, but weird, double play in the fourth. Fall Mountain had a runner on first with one out when Noah Lantz hit a nubber out in front of the plate that was called fair and later was contested by Fall Mountain coach Tom Stockton. O’Brien came in and threw out Lantz at first and the runner, Tanner Walker, tried to go from first to third, but was thrown out by Stevens first baseman Brendan Bean.

“That was a big play by Brendan to make that throw,” Silva said.

While the double play was executed, there were some people, particularly on the Fall Mountain bench, that thought the ball hit Lantz before rolling into fair territory. The three umpires conferred, but the play stood.

The best chance the Wildcats had to do some damage was in the third, when a leadoff single to Heath was followed by a walk to Wright. Stevens then tried to execute a pickoff play, but the throw sailed into the outfield and Fall Mountain had runners on second and third with nobody out. But O’Brien was at his best here, as he got two strikeouts and caught a break when Joe Corey’s well hit-ball to left was right at Stevens outfielder Ryan Napsey.

It’s not very often that Stevens gets far in the playoffs, if at all, in recent years, so Silva is looking forward to keeping the season alive.

“These guys are growing up and continue to surprise me,” Silva said. “And you know what? We have another game to play.”