Spiro hit the first pitch of the evening out of the ball park and went on to collect 14 base hits while beating Central 13-4 in the championship game of the Tiger Shootout, sponsored by National Bank of Sallisaw.
The loss was the second-straight title game setback for Central, which had advanced to the finals of the Stigler tournament the week before only to fall to Roland.
The Tigers found themselves behind 6-0 after two innings and, despite a third-inning rally, could not catch up to the Class 3A 17th-ranked Bulldogs, who improved to 12-10 on the season.
Spiro starting pitcher and leadoff hitter Eric McKinney gave himself an immediate cushion, knocking the first pitch of the game over the fence. The solo home run was McKinney's third leadoff homer since moving to the first spot in the Spiro batting order five games ago.
That sparked a four-run inning for the Bulldogs, who added a two-run double from Mike Jones to go up 6-0 in the second inning.
Central battled back in the bottom of the third as Mark Johnson, Brenden Gentry and Tyler Kutil loaded the bases with no outs. Andy Edwards and Neil Batt followed with RBI singles before Ryan Allison singled in two more runs to make it 6-4.
Spiro dampened Central's hopes of a comeback, however, by scoring four times in the top of the fourth and tacking on three insurance runs in the fifth inning to win by the run rule.
McKinney was the winning pitcher, striking out four batters in three innings of work before Zach Sullins finished up on the mound for Spiro.
First baseman Edwards and third baseman Batt both had two hits and an RBI for the Tigers, who also got one single apiece from Getnry, Kutil and Allison. Five of Central's seven hits came in the third inning.
Spiro was led at the plate by Jones, who batted 3-for-3 with four RBIs. Sullins also had three hits, McKinney was 2-for-3 and Bryant Cox went 2-for-2.
The Bulldogs opened the tournament by defeating Hulbert in the first round and Westville in the semifinals.
Central's road to the championship game began with a 6-2 win over Warner in the first round on Tuesday. Starting pitcher Ryan Dodd allowed two runs in the first inning and then blanked the Eagles the rest of the way to run his record to 8-0.
On Thursday, the Tigers romped to a 15-2 win over Panama in the semifinals. Central blew the game open with nine runs in the third inning and won by the run rule after five innings. Allison hit a home run for Central and senior pitcher Kutil notched the win.
Westville edged Panama on Friday afternoon to grab third place
