Center Township played the role of the sleeping giant Monday night.

For five innings of its Butler County American Legion baseball playoff game against Zelienople, the top seed appeared headed for its third loss of the season.

The team then scored all of its runs in the sixth inning, sending 12 batters to the plate in an 8-7 victory at Pullman Park.

Center Township (15-2) plays Meridian in the winners bracket final Wednesday at Pullman Park.

Zelie will battle Saxonburg today in the losers bracket.

On Monday night, Center Township found itself down 6-0 after the first inning and faced a seven-run deficit after four.

"I just kept telling the guys to play small ball," said CT coach George Rader. "We needed runs and had to focus on fundamentals. To our guys' credit, they didn't get down and kept their heads up."

Zelienople, which arrived at Monday's game by beating Mars 4-2 Saturday on Billy Dixon's no-hitter, received another strong start from Matt Sweikowski.

Through five innings Monday, the right-hander blanked CT on four hits. Sweikowski had shown signs of fatigue in the fifth, but came out of it unscathed.

He was not as fortunate in the sixth.

Singles by Cole Baxter and Taylor Ford and a walk to Tyler Ford loaded the bases with no outs.

Zac Sessa delivered a two-run single to get his team on the board and Todd Wiest's RBI groundout made the score 7-3.

A fielding error loaded the bases with one out and Sweikowski was pulled after issuing a walk that scored Sessa.

"Matt was on tonight," said Zelienople coach Nick Eppinger. "We thought we could get him through the sixth, but he hit a wall.

"We have to catch the ball, too," he added. "We didn't make the plays we needed to make."

Alex Crawford relieved Sweikowski and, after getting the second out of the inning, surrendered a two-run double to Baxter and an infield single to Taylor Ford that tied the game at 7-all.

With Baxter standing on third base, Crawford was charged with a balk, allowing the eventual winning run to score.

"This was a heartbreaker," said Eppinger.

Zelienople (7-11) was set down in order in the seventh by CT reliever Taylor Ford.

Ford entered the game in the second inning after the starter, Joe Malardie, gave up six runs on seven hits in the first frame.

"A lot of credit goes to Taylor," said Rader. "He pitched a whale of a game."

Zach Muto, Dixon, Sweikowski, Zac Frishcorn and Luc Eppinger all had RBI-singles in Zelie's six-run first inning.

Zelienople 600 100 0 — 7 12 1Center Township 000 008 x — 8 9 4W: Taylor Ford 6 IP (3K, 3BB).

L: Alex Crawford 2/3 IP (1K, 0BB).

Zelienople (7-11): Luc Eppinger 3-1B 2 RBI, Blain Bartley 1B R, Alex Crawford 2-1B 2R, Denver Caldwell 2-1B, Zach Muto 1B R RBI, Billy Dixon 1B R RBI, Matt Sweikowski 2-1B R RBI, Zac Frishcorn 1B R RBI

Center Township (15-2): Zach Rader 2B R RBI, Jacob Thompson 1B, Cole Baxter 1B 2B 2R 2 RBI, Taylor Ford 2-1B R RBI, Tyler Ford R, Zac Sessa 2-1B R 2 RBI, Todd Wiest 2B RBI, Tyler Vidmar R, Ethan Rock R