GLENS FALLS * They’ve held on to it all season, used it as a rallying cry and clutched to it the one time things became dire.

The Glens Falls Golden Eagles will wake up this morning and do that again — remind themselves they haven’t lost more than one game in a row all year — because another loss stamps their NYCBL season complete.

For the second consecutive playoff series, Glens Falls — which had the league’s best regular-season record — finds itself one game away from elimination. The defending champion Saratoga Phillies played a crisp, sharp game Thursday night at East Field, which ended 5-2 in their favor. Game 2 of the best-of-three series is tonight at 7:30 in Saratoga.

“We believe we can do it, just like last time,” said shortstop Jake Owens. “We had too good of a regular season to let this happen.”

The Eagles (36-8) just one night previous had defeated Little Falls, completing the same comeback they’ll enter tonight chasing.

Saratoga (27-14), which won its seventh straight game, scored its five runs over the final three innings. Its pitchers struck out 15 batters, 12 of them by Mark Lamm, who picked up his first win.

Tommy Meagher (5-1) took his first loss despite pitching into the eighth inning.

Glens Falls’ bullpen in that three-game series with Little Falls threw 12 of a possible 27 innings. There were not too many arms to turn to when Meagher pitched into an eighth-inning jam, which saw Bryan Rose drive in what proved to be the winning runs with a screaming single over a drawn-in infield.

“We have some (pitchers) that are just exhausted,” Glens Falls coach John Mayotte said.

The Eagles will start Alex Pepe (3-0, 2.05 ERA) tonight. He hasn’t pitched since July 25, coincidentally a 4-0 win over Saratoga.

Asked if he was worried his team keeps putting itself in this position — at the brink of potentially destroying everything a record-setting regular season created — Mayotte shook his head.

“They only thing that worries me is that game that gets us eliminated,” he said.