ferriday — Cliff Hurst knew he had changed the game as soon as the ball left his bat Friday afternoon.

With Centreville’s Hunter Travis on first base, Hurst blasted a towering fly ball toward the right-centerfield fence in the top of the sixth inning off Trinity starting pitcher Jake Winston.

Hurst’s homer gave Centreville a 2-1 lead. It also gave the Tigers a confidence boost after struggling to produce anything off Winston for five innings. That confidence led to Centreville opening up offensively and cruising to a 9-2 victory.

“I had (struck out) two times, so I knew I was due,” Hurst said. “When I hit the home run it really jump started us.”

Hurst said he felt relief as soon as he made contact, because he knew the homer put Centreville in the driver’s seat.

“I knew it was gone,” Hurst said. “I made good contact, and Jake (Winston) had good velocity on the pitch. I knew I could breath, because I knew once we got on top with our pitching staff we would be OK.”

Friday night that pitching staff consisted of Hurst himself, as he went the full seven innings giving up just one earned run and striking out eight.

Hurst said he and Winston are good friends, and he was glad to be able to pitch well against his counterpart.

Trinity got to Hurst early when Daniel Dunaway led off the bottom of the first inning with a single. Andrew Moroney followed Dunaway with a sacrifice bunt. Moroney’s out started a stretch of 19-straight batters retired by Hurst. One of those outs came off the bat of Winston and resulted in a sacrifice fly that scored Dunaway to give Trinity a 1-0 lead.

Winston was just as dominant for the first five innings. He held Centreville hitless until the fifth inning when Hunter Devall knocked a two-out triple off the centerfield wall. Winston retired Randy Bell to strand Devall at third, and Trinity maintained a 1-0 lead into the top of the sixth inning.

Travis led off the sixth with a walk before Hurst’s home run. Centreville added one more run in the sixth when Tyler Towles came around to score on an error after reaching by getting hit by a pitch.

“Winston is a great pitcher,” Centreville head coach Jason Horne said. “And again it was Hurst that hit the homer to put us up.”

The Tigers took a 3-1 lead into the top of the seventh and put the game out of reach in the last frame.

Devall led off the inning with a walk, and Bell followed with a hit-by-pitch that ended Winston’s night. Centreville collected four-straight hits off reliever Daniel Dunaway to stretch the lead to 9-3. Towles and Colby Shaw each had doubles in the inning, and Chance Humphreys and Ethan Noland each had RBI-singles.

Winston managed to score an unearned run for Trinity in the bottom of the seventh inning after reaching on a walk. Trinity head coach Mitch Ashmore said Hurst was just too much for the Saints to handle Friday.

“He nailed it down after (Dunaway’s) hit,” Ashmore said.

Ashmore said Trinity had plenty of heartbreaking loses this season.

“We had a lot of games like that where we seem to fizzle out late in the game,” he said. “But I am proud of these people. They were all giving it their best with the odds against us. And it isn’t a shame for us to get beat by these guys.”

Centreville will face Simpson Academy in the second round of the MAIS Class AA playoffs next week. The Tigers will host Simpson Academy Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Trinity ends its season at 8-8.