CORINTH – James Gray wasn’t used to this sort of thing. Gray, normally a starting pitcher for the Central baseball team, was signaled to the mound from shortstop by coach Alan Strout with one out in the sixth inning and runners at second and third and the Red Devils holding a precarious 4-3 lead over Dexter.

But Gray used a fastball to set up a tight breaking curveball to get Central out of the jam and then pitched out of trouble in the seventh to give the 5-4 Red Devils the win.

Gray showed confidence in his arm despite having made three throwing errors at short.

“I can usually control it better from the mound. I felt good. I felt I could get them out,” the senior said.

Gray quickly struck out Dexter second baseman Mike Martin, getting him out on back-to-back curveballs. Then after walking Eric Day, he induced Tigers pitcher Adam Russell into grounding out to first baseman Tristan Strout.

In the seventh after getting Chris Rabideau to fly out to deep center field, Kyle Stone reached on an infield error that appeared to upset Gray, who walked Jason Clukey.

“[The error] made me a little nervous,” Gray admitted.

Stone and Clukey pulled off a double steal to move to second and third, but Gray knuckled down, striking out Mark Pullen and then snaring Tim McCarthy’s sharply hit bouncer up the middle and throwing him out to end the game.

Central starting pitcher Joey Kane allowed just one earned run in 5 2/3 innings of work and drove in a pair of runs in the third inning with a single to left that gave the Red Devils a 2-1 lead.

“I was just looking for a fastball. He was behind on me, so I sat on a fastball and got lucky I guess,” Kane said.

The 9-3 Tigers fought back in the fourth to tie the score when Pullen’s double to right field plated Clukey, who had reached on a single and stole second base.

The Tigers might have scored more. Stone started the inning by getting hit by a pitch and moved to third on Clukey’s single. He was tagged out on an attempted steal of home when the Red Devils executed a trick play.

With Clukey on the run and stealing second, Central catcher Colby Brown threw to Gray at short. Gray’s return throw to home beat Stone.

Tom Palmer scored one run and Julian scored on Brown’s single to right in the fourth to give Central a 4-2 lead. But the Red Devils gave a run back in the fifth when they committed two of their eight errors on one play, allowing Russell, who had reached on a one-out single, to score.

It was the Tigers’ inability to take advantage of the Central miscues that frustrated Dexter coach Brent Day.

“Lately we’ve been playing that type of ball ourselves. We’ve been kinda letting teams stay around, letting them keep it too close for comfort,” Day said.

Russell had three hits for Dexter while Strout had a pair of singles for Central.

RED DEVILS 4, TIGERS 3

Dexter (9-3) Central (5-4)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Martin, 2b 3 0 0 0 J. Allen, cf 2 1 0

a-Morrison 1 0 0 0 Kane, p-ss 3 0 2

Day, ss 2 1 0 0 Gray, ss-p 3 0 0

Russell, p 4 1 3 0 Strout, 1b 2 0 0

Rabideau, 3b 4 0 0 0 Palmer, 2b 3 1 0

Stone, c 3 0 0 0 Julian, dh 2 1 0

Clukey, cf 3 1 1 0 Underhill, rf 0 0 0

Pullen, rf 4 0 1 1 Brown, c 3 0 1

McCarthy, dh 3 0 0 0 A. Allen, lf 2 1 0

Hersey, lf 0 0 0 0 Parker 2 0 0 0

b-Crane 0 0 0 0

Bowers, 1b 2 0 1 0

Totals 29 3 6 1 Totals 22 4 6 3

a-struck out for Martin in the 4th; b-ran for McCarthy in the 6th

Dexter 001 110 0 ? 3

Central 002 200 x ? 4

E?Bowers; Gray 3, Brown, Palmer, Parker, Underhill, Strout; LOB?Dexter 11; Central 3; 2B?Pullen; A. Allen; DP?Martin-Bowers; Rabideau-Bowers-Rabideau; S?Parker; SB?Clukey 2, Bowers, Russell, Stone; Strout, J. Allen

Dexter IP H R ER BB SO

Russell (L) 6 6 4 3 2 2

Central IP H R ER BB SO

Kane (W) 5 1/3 6 3 1 3 2

Gray (S) 1 2/3 0 0 0 2 2

HBP?Stone by Kane; Julian by Russell; WP?Russell; Kane, Gray; PB?Brown; T?1:35; ATT?100 (est.)