After having a perfect football season end at the Class A state quarterfinals and finishing the basketball season needing one win to make state, the Central Tigers saw their baseball team knock down the door to state.

The Tigers completed an undefeated Class 2A Regional Tournament by beating the regionalhost Calera Bulldogs 2-1 in Saturday afternoon’s regional final at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant to advance to next week’s state tournament.

The Tigers (18-15) will play Oktaha at 11 a.m. Thursday in the Class 2A State Tournament quarterfinals at Shawnee High School’s Ed Skelton Field. The Central-Oktaha winner will meet the Preston- Wister winner at 11 a.m. Friday at Ed Skelton Field, with that winner playing for the state title at noon Saturday.

The Tigers opened the Class 2A Regional Tournament last Wednesday in Calera with a 7-2 win over the regional-host Bulldogs, then had to wait a day to play again due to Thursday’s action being rained out., On Friday in McAlester, the Tigers defeated the Coalgate Wildcats 4-3 in nine innings in dramatic fashion to advance to the regional final.

In Saturday’s regional championship game, the Tigers fell behind 1-0 in the third inning, but took the lead for good in the fourth inning on Hardy Buzzard’s RBI single and Mekko Ariza’s RBI groundout for a 2-1 lead.

For the game, Buzzard was 2-for-3 with a run batted in for Central.

Bo Locust got the complete-game win, fanning four batters in seven innings.

In the first win over Calera, the Tigers put away the Bulldogs early with a pair of three-run innings for a 6-0 lead after two innings.

For the game, Locust was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a run batted in, Buzzard was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Connor Walters doubled with a run scored for Central.

Cade Tucker got the complete-game victory, getting three strikeouts.

In the victory over Coalgate, Mekko Ariza’s bases-loaded walkoff walk with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning broke a 3-all tie to send the Tigers to the regional title game.

For the contest, Ariza had a single and the game-winning RBI, Locust singled and scored twice, Tucker singled and scored once and Aiden Sainer and Paitton Merrill each singled for Central.

Buzzard got the complete nine-inning victory as he fanned five batters.