The Central Middle School baseball team left its coach and fans with much to be proud of this past season.

The Bobcats went 9-0 in the Southside Middle School Western Division, and then followed this up with two more wins to claim the Southside Middle School Conference Championship.

Central defeated Park View Middle School 8-0 in the championship game, after topping Wyatt Middle School 10-4 in the semifinals.

Bryan Tuck has coached the Bobcats for six years now, and he said that until now, “As far as the undefeated season and the tournament champs, I haven’t had one (team) that has done that. In fact, we’ve won the conference on our side before, but never being undefeated on that side.”

Usually able to hand Central a loss is Powhatan, “but we were fortunate enough this time to get them both times,” Tuck said.

As for why his team was so successful this season, Tuck said they simply played together as a team.

“If they made an error, somebody else was going to make a play next to take care of it,” he said. “Like I said, they just played very well just as a team. They did a good job there.”

The Bobcats benefited from strong play on the mound. Eighth-grader Colby Jordan recorded five wins, eighth-grader Matthew Harding registered four wins and seventh-graders Tyler Case and Drew Dowdy earned one victory apiece.

“All of our pitching did really well,” Tuck said.

Through all 11 games this year, Central scored 139 runs and gave up only 21.

“We could hit the ball, no doubt about that,” Tuck said. “You score that many (runs), you’re supposed to win.”

He noted seventh-grader Noah Walker hit the ball quite well. Also key at the plate were eighth-graders Tyrik Beattie, Bryan Vicks, Carson Gibbs and Harding.

“They were the bulk of my hitting for average,” Tuck said.

He also highlighted eighth-grader A.J. Leach.

“He got some big hits for us when we needed it in a couple of close games there,” Tuck said. “I guess he was one of those kids that came through in the clutch for us.”