Behind a strong pitching performance and the big inning, the Lions rolled to a 1-0 record in the tournament. Seth Brown started and went four innings, giving up just one run on three hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts before yielding to Jacob Lane, who went two innings and yielded two runs on two hits with a pair of walks.
"Good win. We had two guys that came out and pitched really well for us. We played good defense again [Tuesday]. The bats were live, we had some key hits in key opportunities and took advantage of some mistakes they made defensively. We were able to put pressure on them and keep adding to the lead. I was very pleased with what they did," Central coach Wesley Shiver said.
The game started off as a back-and-forth battle, with Central scoring a run in the first on a Ryan Helton RBI single before Mt. Zion tied it up in the top of the third with a Kace Webb single to score Nate Warren, making it 1-1 going into the bottom of the third.
The Lions added a pair of runs in the home half, as Corey Sullivan scored on Spencer Lewis' RBI double and Lewis scored on Wesley Long's single up the middle to put Central up 3-1.
Tristen Puckett and Corey Loftin picked up RBI singles in the fifth to tie the game back up, but that's when things went downhill for the Eagles.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Lions scored six runs on just three hits with a walk, a hit batter and three errors before ending the game with a run in the sixth.
It was the second game of the day where the Eagles allowed a six-run inning, helping out their opponents with walks and defensive miscues.
"It's a reoccurring theme that we're still not able to finish things and learn that mentality that we're right here in this and we need to concentrate our energy and focus on what we're doing. One thing leads to another bad thing and we've been preaching to not let one error turn into two errors," MZ coach Wade Cohen said.
The Lions will have today off before continuing their tournament schedule Thursday at 7 p.m. against Lamar County, while Mt. Zion will play again today at 7 p.m. against New Manchester, hoping to finish out the summer on a positive note.
"We've got two games left in the summer schedule and we want to finish strong going into tryouts in the spring. Hopefully everybody's going to work hard and improve between now and then. Looking forward to a good year next year," Cohen said.
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