Younts, a senior, allowed only three hits and struck out 15 Falcons to improve his record to 7-1 and his team’s mark to 24-3.

Coach Chris Cauble’s West club, the No. 3 seed from the South Piedmont Conference, finished its season with a 14-12 mark.

Central’s Spartans, the No. 1 seed from the Tri-County Conference, will take on the SPC’s No. 1 seed, East Rowan, at 7 p.m. Thursday at Granite Quarry’s Staton Field in the second round of the playoffs. East defeated South Point 7-0 last night.

“I’m very pleased at the way the season ended up as far as making the playoffs,” said Cauble. “We talked about not having any playoff experience, and, out of 18 players, 14 of them got in the game in some form or fashion. Next year, there’s no excuse. They’ve all got playoff experience now.”

West’s starting and losing pitcher, right-hander Jared Barnette (6-6), had the biggest hit of the night for the Falcons, a solo home run to left field that gave the visitors a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Ryan Schenk’s single and Ben Hampton’s double, both in the sixth, were West’s other hits.

“He (Barnette) came out and got the home run in the first inning and put us up on top 1-0. We felt pretty good. We got runners on a couple of other times and didn’t do anything with them,” said Cauble. “They did all the little things right, and we did all the little things wrong. That was the difference in the ball game.”

Younts, after yielding Barnette’s third homer of the season, allowed only three fair balls to the next 15 batters, two infield grounders and a fly to right. He got in a mild jam in the sixth when Schenk singled and Hampton followed with a double, but then got the side out on a grounder back to the mound and two strikeouts.

“Their pitcher was a pitcher. He wasn’t a thrower,” said Cauble of Younts. “He mixed his pitches up well, and he threw for spots. He’s one of the first pitchers we’ve faced that has went up and in at will and had us chase it, then he came back with the curveball. He’s a very smart pitcher. He doesn’t throw the ball as hard as 75 percent of the pitchers we’ve faced this year, but I would say he’s one of the smartest ones we’ve faced.”

Barnette allowed six runs in four innings on the mound, but only three were earned, coming on Nick Lockhart’s 13th homer of the season with two teammates on base in the third inning.

Two West errors by Barnette and shortstop Ryan Schenk led to a Central run in the second inning. An error by third baseman Corey Ruff led to two unearned runs in the fourth. Cauble also thought a double to deep center by Younts should have been caught after the error.

“We make the play at shortstop in the second inning, and they don’t score there. They don’t score two runs if the centerfielder (Matt Morgan) opens up and gets behind the ball like we’ve worked on and finds the fence. The ball was very catchable.I consider that an error. We make those two plays, I know for sure the ball game’s 3-1,” said Cauble.

Younts went 3-for-4 with three doubles and drove in two runs.

The Spartans’ final run in the sixth off reliever Josh Overcash came on a rare sacrifice fly. After first baseman Shawn Trosper caught Tripp Lockhart’s foul ball near the West dugout, Brian Flynn raced home from third while home plate was left unprotected.