It was one of those innings, and one of those games for Central Hinds, when everything seemed to go right. Of course, that means it was one of those games where everything goes wrong for its opponent, which in this case happened to be St. Aloysius.

Central Hinds strung together three bunt singles, an infield hit, and a seeing-eye single to score six runs in the top of the first inning Monday and never looked back. It routed St. Al 14-5 in the first game of a doubleheader at Bazinsky Field to clinch the District 3-AAA title.

“It was pretty bad. We tried to get through it that next inning and scratch a couple of runs and couldn’t get anything going. We couldn’t make plays on defense. It was all around a struggle for everybody,” said St. Al first baseman Rett Verhine, who reached base twice and scored two runs. “It was one of those games. We’ve got games all week, so we’ve got to flush this. We can’t get behind.”

Despite Monday’s setback, St. Al (13-6, 8-3 District 3-AAA) is still in prime position to make the playoffs. It needs to sweep hapless Park Place in three games this week to clinch the No. 2 seed from District 3-AAA.

St. Al hosts Park Place Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Bazinsky Field, and then they’ll play a doubleheader Friday in Pearl.

“That’s going to be huge, because if we can get three wins against them going into the playoffs that would put momentum right back with us. That would be huge for us. That would be something we’ve really got to do,” Verhine said.

St. Al still had a chance to win the district title if it had swept Tuesday’s doubleheader with Central Hinds (16-6, 11-0), but those hopes evaporated in a flurry of hits that never or only barely left the infield.

Three of Central Hinds’ first four batters reached base before Hunter Harvey dropped a perfect bunt between the pitcher’s mound and first base. No one got to it before he legged it out for a hit that brought in the Cougars’ first run.

Weston Acey followed with a single that just got through the right side of the infield, Spencer Smith drew a bases-loaded walk, and Beau Combe had another bunt hit to make it 4-0.

An infield single by Champ Smith and one by Tanner Leggett that actually did reach the outfield increased the margin to 6-0.

Central Hinds padded its lead throughout the game. Josh Banes and Peyton Banes each had RBI doubles, and Smith an RBI single.

Leggett finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs, Smith was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored, and Josh Banes drove in a pair of runs.

“We started hitting early and got up on them, played good defense and got a win,” Leggett said. “That gives us momentum and confidence to step up. The next guy does the same thing, and we start winning runs. We stepped on the throats, as our coach says.”

St. Al, meanwhile, self-destructed every time it started to put a rally together. It hit into three double plays, two of which were inning-enders and the third of which blew up a last-ditch rally in the seventh inning.

Landon Middleton went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for the Flashes.

“Every time we got something going, I think we rolled into three double plays. We had guys that aren’t usually hitting the ball well hitting rockets right to guys in center field,” Verhine said. “Every time something somewhat good would happen, they’d come right back with something better.”