Photo by Nick Henthorn Bellaire’s Grant Vasey throws a pitch Tuesday against Wheeling Central on John Blacker Field.

BELLAIRE — It was a slow build to a big payoff Tuesday for the Wheeling Central Catholic Maroon Knights, who turned a corner in the fourth inning to propel them to a 13-2 six-inning victory over the Bellaire Big Reds.

The Knights did tack on one run in the first inning and two in the second to lead 3-0 going into the fourth, but the visitors’ offense really kicked into high gear from there.

Three runs in the fourth, three more in the fifth and four in the sixth was more than enough to abbreviate the contest at John Blacker Field.

“I thought we came out and we competed with them early, our pitcher was making pitches and doing a good job of keeping them off-balance,” Bellaire head coach Bailey McGrath said. “They’re a very good team, they’re very well-disciplined and eventually they’re going to start hitting the ball.”

In the end, it was 13 runs on 13 hits for Central, while Bellaire scored runs in the fourth and fifth on four hits. Either team was marked for one error.

“We started taking better approaches,” Wheeling Central head coach Todd Cover said. “We’re in the fourth week of spring and this is only our sixth game. It’s been sporadic, weather’s been pretty bad, and as the weather starts heating up we can get out here, get more consistent at-bats and see more live pitching.

“Hitting is all about rhythm and if it’s something you don’t do every day it’s hard to get into rhythm. I liked our approaches as the game went on.”

Landon Prager pitched the first five innings of the game for Central, picking up the win and limiting the Big Reds on the scoreboard.

Andy Bailer closed the door in the sixth, going 1-2-3 with one strikeout.

“Landon’s been consistent,” Cover said. “He’s throwing a lot of innings for us, he’s one of three seniors we’ve got. I liked the way he attacked the zone, he got all his pitches over- which for any pitcher is a key, getting all your pitches over and they don’t know what’s coming.

“Andy came in for that last inning and shut it down. Our M.O. all year has been pitching and defense and I think that was key to today, and we finally put some runs on the board. Hopefully we can keep that going.”

Luke Tiu batted in three for the Knights, Braxton Billick, Koy Lipinski and Hunter Mueller each had two RBI for Central, while Luke Heatherington and Brae Schmidli each drove in runs for Bellaire.

The Knights scored one in the first, and Eli Tucker and Mueller each punched RBI singles in the top of the second.

Bellaire starter Grant Vasey did well to avoid the big swing through the first three innings, but the Big Reds were not finding many swings of their own on offense.

“The first pitcher they threw had a nice curveball, kept us off-balance but as the game wore on, I think we started to work counts and attack the zone,” Cover said. “I’m impressed with that, hopefully we can keep it rolling.”

Prager got out of a two-out, two-on situation in the bottom of the third by inducing a comebacker that he fielded himself, and then Central struck in the fourth.

Luke Tiu looped a hit into right field that scored both Lipinski and Brayden Cover, and Braxton Billick shot a single up the middle that scored Tiu in turn.

Bellaire’s Brae Schmidli poked a single up the middle to score Landon Preston, but Prager ended the inning on a successful pickoff attempt during the next at-bat.

Three more scored in the fifth- Mueller walloped a two-run double and then scored on a Tiu ground ball before inning’s end.

Bellaire scored again in the fifth thanks to nice hitting- Riley Zonker roped a double down the third baseline and Heatherington striped a single to right field to score him, but that was all they could muster, and still trailed 9-2.

Brady Ernest tallied an RBI single, Billick drove in two with a double into the left-center gap, and Billick scored on a groundout to ramp the score up to 13-2. A clean bottom of the sixth ended the game.

“They took advantage of everything that happened on the field,” McGrath said of Central. “They baseran well, they hit the ball well, their pitcher threw very well. I thought we competed with them and eventually they turned it on and pulled away from us.”