It looked like Forsyth Central’s girls were in a fight to the finish with visiting Lambert Tuesday.

But as it turned out, the Lady Bulldogs earned their first win of the season comfortably, breaking open a 6-4 game in the bottom of the sixth inning and run-ruling the Lady Longhorns 12-4.

Lambert (2-6 overall, 0-3 Region 7-AAAA) got six hits off Central’s Allye Ingram (CG, 3 BB, 10 K), but could never manage more than a run in any inning. The Lady Longhorns scored once in the first, second, fourth and sixth frames.

Lambert’s only lead in the game came when the Lady Horns pushed across a run in the top of the first, as Megan Walz bounced a double just past the reach of shortstop Jessica Dunn’s glove with two runners on.

Central (1-7, 1-2) responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning, and led the rest of the game by at least a run.

“It’s kind of like every time they got one, we were able to match it. ... That kind of made a big difference, we answered everything that they came up with,” Central coach Bill Richardson said.

Indeed, Central answered every Lambert score with at least one of its own, and the final answer was a six-run outburst in the sixth that suddenly turned a tight game into a rout.

The inning led off with Naomi Chance pinch-hitting in the No. 9 hole for Central, who managed to get on by drawing a plunk from Lambert pitcher Amanda Maxfield. A fielder’s choice that resulted in no outs, followed by a single, put Katie Stanford and Dunn on to load the bases.

Chance scored on a passed ball during Rachel Karlan’s at-bat, then Karlan (2-for-3, reached on error) laid down a single just out of shortstop Megan Whitlatch’s reach to score Stanford.

Next, Jordan Murdock put the ball in play, and Lambert chose to go home, but the throw didn’t catch Dunn, who scored. The ball got through home plate, and the error also scored Karlan, making it 10-4 with no outs.

An errant attempt to throw out Taylor Alton at first put runners at the corners on the next at-bat, and another passed ball brought Murdock home.

Ashlyn Capp ended the game with a triple to the wall in left, scoring Alton.

In all, seven Central batters got on base during the inning, only three with hits.

“[We’re a] pretty young team. We’re just still trying to find our groove. ...We’re working hard every day and we’ll get better,” Lambert coach Dana Corr said.

Richardson said Chance made him “look like a genius” in the sixth inning by working the count to get on in the frame’s first at-bat.

“All of a sudden, you know, it’s kind of like the snowball got rolling downhill and it was good stuff for us,” he said.

“I hope nobody thought I was running [the score] up. I was just trying to think, ‘Hey, if we can keep our defense from going back out there, then good,’” Richardson said with a laugh.

Central committed three errors in the game, with Lambert making six.

“I thought we did some real good stuff. We still missed a couple of signs in situations that could have been critical, but again, when they scored, we answered it pretty much right away,” Richardson said.

“It’s a nice feeling going home with the win instead of the other choice.”

The county and region rivals will see plenty of each other this season. Lambert beat Central 7-0 in an Aug. 14 game which didn’t count in the region standings, and the teams will meet twice more in the regular season.