Two hours later, he was convinced they were champions.

“We took a round of infield that was definitely not a pretty sight,” said Lawson. “I was concerned that we weren’t going to be up to what it takes to play a game like this. I knew exactly what we were up against, because I got drilled by East five years ago at Staton Field. But the kids? I don’t think they had any idea what they were in for.”

A boisterous, standing-room-only crowd in Granite Quarry saw why the Spartans are 25-3, ranked eighth in the state and headed for the third round of the 3A playoffs for the first time in a decade. Central was stoic and heroic in holding off East 4-3. Instead of getting intimidated, they got intense. Sure, they were skittish, but they weren’t scared. There’s a big difference.

“None of us have been in the playoffs, so we were pretty nervous,” said Spartan star Nick Lockhart, who threw a complete game (to his catching cousin, Tripp Lockhart) and belted a two-run homer. “We tried to keep each other calm. I’ve never been in a place like this or a game like this.”

But when the crowd got really rowdy, Lockhart could think back to Lawson’s final words of advice. “Guys, they’re gonna holler at you, but just remember they all paid their four dollars.”

Then after a pause, Lawson had added, “And besides, we get half the money.”

There was nothing fluky about a Central win that finished sixth-ranked East’s fine season at 23-5. Lockhart fanned 11 and his defense didn’t make a physical error. Spartan hitters cracked nearly a dozen line drives, good for five extra-base hits.

Still, this was the sort of wild game that East usually wins. Certainly, it was the sort of game that East normally wins at home at playoff time. But the Mustangs converted six walks and nine hits into a measly three runs. One run came on Brian Hatley’s solo homer, another on a balk. That means East mustered exactly one hit to drive home a runner. The Mustangs stranded 12, tying their season high.

“We just couldn’t get that one big hit,” said East coach Jeff Safrit. “I’m not cutting their pitcher down — he battled us — but we’ve faced three or four guys in our league with better stuff. We held them to four runs, so we ought to win this ballgame.”

East’s reliable young guns at the top of the lineup missed most of the RBI chances after the bottom did a decent job (No. 8 hitter Nick Lefko had two hits, plus a walk) of setting the table.

East set the tone by loading the bases in the first and failing to score.

In the second, East put two runners on, but both Cal Hayes Jr. and Drew Davis popped up. Davis had another chance in the fourth, but stranded a pair with a bouncer to the mound.

“We sure had our guys up there that we wanted,” said Safrit. “But you can’t leave 12. You just can’t go there.”

The broken record droned on in the fifth when Lockhart fanned pinch-hitter Aaron Safrit to strand two more.

East was down 4-1 after Brian Flynn’s homer and a run-scoring wild pitch in the fifth, but Safrit still liked his chances. He knew things would get crazy eventually and figured his battle-tested team would have the edge when the pressure became unbearable.

It looked like the sixth was the frame Safrit had waited for. Lefko opened with a hit and one out later, Hayes’ shot to center moved him to second.

Then came the play that will be remembered longest. Davis sliced a hit down the right-field line. With only one out and his two big guns, Hatley and Brett Peiffer, due to hit, Safrit stopped Lefko at third. Lefko probably could have scored on the play, but down three, Safrit couldn’t take the risk.

Meanwhile, Hayes, running pell-mell from first, saw he could reach third easily and didn’t notice that Safrit had held Lefko until he was nearly shaking hands with his buddy. Suddenly, two Mustangs were straddling third and Hayes became an easy —and huge — second out.

“Cal was being aggressive like always,” said Safrit. “But I had Nick stopped all the way. Cal knows he made a mistake. It happens.”

Davis continued on to second while the Spartans were running down Hayes. It was the right play, but it worked against the Mustangs. Now first base was open and Lawson had an excuse to avoid the red-hot Hatley.

Hatley, who went out with a bang in his last high school game with two hits and two walks, looked at four pitches that weren’t anywhere close to load the bases.

Peiffer followed with East’s lone clutch hit, a sharp single that plated Lefko. Now it was 4-2. Davis trotted home on the balk to make it 4-3. But Lockhart struck out pitcher Drew Lyerly, who had come on to relieve Jeremy Teague in the fifth, ending the threat.

Lyerly was hitless on the season, but had walked in four of his previous seven plate appearances. Safrit said he weighed his pinch-hitting options, but felt Lyerly was his best hope.

“Drew had as good a chance as anyone I could send up for him,” said Safrit. “He’s been hitting pretty good in practice and he’s got a tough strike zone.”

But as he did all game long, Lockhart reached down for a bit more and made the right pitches at the right time.

East was down to the 7-8-9 lineup spots as the bottom of the seventh rolled around, which meant that if just one hitter could reach, Hayes, eager to redeem himself and swinging a bat menacingly, would have one last chance to save East’s season.

But Hayes looked on helplessly as Lockhart fanned Andrew Barrier and Lefko. East’s last hope, pinch-hitter Julian Sides, grounded wide of first base on a 3-2 pitch. Central’s Jeff Mabe juggled the hopper twice in his anxiety to make the play, but recovered and fed Lockhart to retire Sides by a stride and trigger a crazed Central celebration.

“I knew the seventh had to be 1-2-3,” said Lockhart. “The top of their lineup is so tough. Our best chance to win was not to see Hayes up there.”

“I never considered taking Nick out of there,” said Lawson. “I’d look at him to see if he was OK and he’d say, ‘I’m good, I’m good.’ ”

He was good. Lockhart’s first-inning homer to the center-field flagpole helped his teammates relax after that shaky warmup. It was a bomb off Teague.

“Teague didn’t make a mistake,” Safrit said. “Lockhart’s just a spooky hitter. He went down for a low slider and hit it a long way.”

East played phenomenal defense to stay close. First baseman Barrier soared to spear a liner. Catcher Davis fired to Lyerly covering the plate to knock off a runner trying to score on a would-be wild pitch. Rightfielder Lefko turned a first-inning rocket into a double play. Second baseman Justin Miller took away a hit. Davis threw out a runner trying to steal and the Mustangs erased Ashley Miller when he tried to score from second on a single to left. A fourth-inning relay from Adam Cornelius to third baseman Hatley to a plate-blocking Davis cut down Miller by a whisker.