Late Central Rally Falls Short Against Midland

SAN ANGELO, TX-- Although Central lost Tuesday night to the Midland Bulldogs 12-6, their fight was evident throughout the game.

“These guys never give up,” said Central Head Coach Patrick Penry “We’ve been in games and we have fought.  We put ourselves behind the eight ball far as getting behind hitters with pitching. Right now these young guys are just going to have to step up. Like we talked about they’re not quitters and we have no quit in us, we just have to keep on getting better.”

Midland came out early scoring two runs in the first, but Central’s Mikey Cruz battled back on the mound striking out three Bulldog batters. 

Cruz faced six batters once again in the second inning, but limited the damage to only one run while holding two Bulldog runners on base. 

In the bottom half of the second the Bobcats scored a run on a RBI single by Eric Rios. In the inning the Bobcats left two runners on base in what would end up being a total of seven stranded runners for the game. 

Midland opened things up in the third inning scoring three runs on three hits to extend their lead 6-1 on Central. Conner Jauz of Midland kept momentum on the Bulldogs side retiring all three of Central’s batters in a row with three fly outs to the outfield. 

Central brought in Rios in the fourth to give Midland a different look, but the Bulldogs brought in three more runs to make it a 9-1 ballgame. 

The Bobcats finally managed to hold Midland to scoreless in the fifth while scoring two of their own to bring them within six runs of the Bulldogs. 

Going into the sixth,the game looked in reach for the Bobcats after a solid fifth inning. However, the Bulldogs quickly sized back momentum with a three-run inning bringing the score to 12-3 in favor of Midland. 

After all three batters struck out for Central in the sixth, they put together a nice run in final inning and did not allow Midland to score. 

Oscar Nino was responsible for two runs batted in and Cole Wilson crossed the plate on an error. Nino finished 1-4 with three RBI’s on the night. 

Although Central drove in three runs in the final inning, there just weren’t enough outs left for them to get back into the game with Midland winning by the final score 12-6.

Central (4-9) will face Hebron and the Colony this Thursday, March 8 in the Lewisville Tournament.