To say that the Century High School baseball team has struggled this year would be an understatement.

    Entering Thursday’s 4A Fifth-Sixth District game with Blackfoot, the Diamondbacks had a 2-13 record and had yet to win a district contest.

    Blackfoot, on the other hand, stood in a tie with Bonneville at the top of the district standings, but had its nine-game winning streak snapped by Madison Tuesday.

    Both teams were looking to get on track heading into the final week of the regular season as they faced off at Halliwell Park.

    Century starting pitcher Brandon Georgeson was ready for the challenge.

    Georgeson pitched a complete game, striking out 10 Broncos as the Diamondbacks earned their first district win of the season, 7-2.

    “It is a much better feeling today than we had after Tuesday’s game.” Century head coach Duane Rawlings said. “(There was) a lot of introspection between today and Tuesday. We talked to the kids about where our focus needs to be the remainder of the season. Then the kids had a meeting amongst themselves and we had real good practice Wednesday and a good team dinner. Then we came out to play.”

    Georgeson got into a little trouble in the first inning, loading the bases with after a walk, single and hit batter.

    But he battled back to get Dylan Mansanarez and Mitch Martin on strikeouts.

    The key to Georgeson’s success Thursday was his breaking ball.

    From the opening pitch of the game Georgeson established the curve as his primary pitch, and Blackfoot batters had a tough time dealing with it.

    “Brandon has pitched well every time he takes the ball,” Rawlings said. “He has gone deeper and deeper in every outing this season and today he was at the top of his game.”

    “We were not aggressive in the box all day,” Blackfoot head coach Kenny Dahle said. “When you face a guy that throws a breaking pitch like that, you need to adjust. We did out hit them thanks to the late rally, but it was not enough. We were not focused and ready to play today.”

    Blackfoot starter Colby Pearson was equally as good in the game’s first four innings. Both pitchers held the opponent scoreless.

    But the normally sure-handed Broncos defense fell apart in the fifth inning.

    Century’s Braden Palmer reached on an error by Blackfoot shortstop Russel Osborn to start the frame.

    After a groundout, Braedon Leiby walked. Zach Bristol then drove in the games first run with a double to left field.

    Leiby scored on groundball to shortstop that led to two different throwing errors.

    While three errors in an inning is not good for any team, things got worse for the Broncos in the sixth.

    The Blackfoot defense committed five more errors, which accounted for all four Century runs.

    All five errors were committed by the Broncos’ middle infield.

    “We came unfocused and unprepared today,” Dahle said. “Give a lot of credit to Century, we made a lot of mistakes and they capitalized on every one. We gave up seven runs in the game, but none of those were earned. I don’t care how good of a team you are, if you play like we did today you are going to lose.”

    “We played well, but Blackfoot gave us some things,” Rawlings said. “When a team starts making errors like they did, it becomes contagious, and I think that’s what happened today.”

    All is not lost for Blackfoot (13-5, 6-1 4A Fifth-Sixth District) as the Broncos and Diamondbacks (3-13, 1-4) will meet again today in Blackfoot.

    “The one positive from Thursday was that we get to go out and play them again on Friday,” Dahle said. “We are still in good shape in the standings, but we need to come out and play better than we did today.”

    Justin Mathe led the Broncos at the plate, going 2-for-3. Leiby was 2-for-3 with an RBI for Century.

    First pitch between the two teams is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. today at Blackfoot High School.