Central coaches and players just shook their heads after splitting District 6-AA baseball series with Tyner and Red Bank.
They were fortunate in that they controlled their own destiny headed into the final series with league-leading Hixson, and Central made the most of it, putting a 5-1 cap Wednesday on a two-game sweep of the Wildcats.
Coming on the strength of a nine-strikeout, four-hit performance by junior pitcher Dakota Fowler, the win gave the Purple Pounders the regular-season championship and top seed in the district tournament. Hixson will be the No. 2 seed.
"All the regular season does for you is get your seed for the tournament," Pounders coach Glen Carter said. "The way our tournament is set up, if you finish first or second you're automatically included in the double-elimination portion."
Central has now won the regular-season title the last five years, Carter thought, but he easily keeps that in perspective.
"Only twice have we gotten out of the district (tournament) and moved on, and we haven't hosted a region game in my time here," he said.
He's hopeful the pitching remains strong. The Pounders have given up only two runs in their last six games and now they've added Fowler, who picked up his first win against the Wildcats.
"(Carter) kept asking me how I felt as the game went on, but he also said it was my game," said Fowler, who was kept off the mound early in the season after suffering some minor arm problems. "I was hitting my spots, the guys were making plays behind me and we were getting some hits."
The hitting, along with error-free defense, was reason for Carter at least to smile. His Pounders had nine hits, but he still wasn't overjoyed.
"You get nine hits it seems to me you ought to score more than five runs, but that three runs in the third is one of the biggest innings we've had all year," he said.
Tyler Lowe went 2-for-4.
"We've struggled with the bat and have had to try to manufacture runs any way possible, but today is an improvement over what we've seen throughout the season, and we're getting better," Carter said.
While Central's hitting has improved, Hixson's has dropped off, especially over the last five games. The run Wednesday was the Wildcats' first in five games.
"Our situational hitting hasn't been great," Hixson coach Colton Green said. "When we have gotten guys on, we haven't been able to get them over. We didn't put too many on today, but it seemed like every time we did there were two outs."
Four Wildcats got hits, but Brandon Carver was the only one with an RBI.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.