Early season nonregion games are scheduled to help teams work the kinks out, and Forsyth Central and Lambert showed on Friday they both have some work to do.

In a game where both teams looked inconsistent, the Bulldogs used a four-run outburst in the second inning to hold on and beat the Longhorns 4-3 at Central.

Central coach Kevin McCollum said he would have liked to see a more consistent offensive presence from his team, which scored all of its runs in the second inning, but he was happy to get a victory.

“It’s a win, so we can build off that. It makes it a little bit easier to get back to work after a win, but [there’s] still a lot of work to do. We didn’t really put much pressure on them, a lot of lazy swings, a lot of weak swings. We’re better offensively than what we showed tonight,” McCollum said.

Trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the second, Central (2-3) got six consecutive base runners and five hits, plating four runs.

Coming to bat with the bases loaded and one out, Shawn Goughnour jumped on the first pitch from Scott Schlesinger, planting a single in left-center field and giving his team a 2-1 lead.

Two at-bats later, the bags were again full for Benton Stoutamire, who laid down a ball in the infield and forced Lambert to settle for a fielders choice at second, while Cameron Moore scored from third.

A double steal then cost the Longhorns (0-3) another run, as an unsuccessful attempt to gun down Stoutamire at second allowed Goughnour to score from third, making it 4-1.

“Getting on base, that’s what we preach — trying to get on base any way you can and that one inning we did. Unfortunately, the rest of the game, we didn’t put much pressure on them, which is more what I look at,” McCollum said.

Spencer Transue picked up the win for Central, allowing 3 runs in 5 innings.

Lambert scored once in the second, once in the third and once in the fourth to tighten the margin to one run.
Schlesinger recorded two RBI on an error and a single.

“Through the first three games, I’m really excited with the way we’ve pitched. I think that’s going to keep us in just about every ball game as long as we can throw strikes the way we’ve done and get people to hit ground balls,” Lambert coach Jamie Corr said.

“Hitting’s going to come around. When you get into these 30-degree wind chill nights, of course offense is going to be at a premium. I thought we did a good job of putting the ball in play. We’ve just got to keep plugging away and hopefully those hard hit balls will start finding some holes.”

Central has three games in three days this week, visiting South Forsyth Wednesday and traveling to Sequoyah Thursday before hosting North Forsyth Friday.

Lambert visits Dawson County Monday before taking on North Forsyth Wednesday at North Georgia College & State University.