Warren Central set to face Northwest Rankin in 6A playoffs

Published 9:36 am Thursday, April 28, 2016

For several years now, Warren Central has fostered a reputation as a plucky underdog. It’s been a program good enough to make the playoffs and even throw a scare into the state’s best teams, but still one that’s at a decided disadvantage against opponents with overwhelming talent.

That is not this year’s Vikings.

The 2016 Vikings are a gathering storm ready to take on — and beat — anyone that gets in their way. They’ve done it throughout the season by beating playoff-bound opponents like Clinton, Terry, Brandon and Madison Central, and they’re ready to do it again when they face Northwest Rankin in a second-round series beginning Thursday night.

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Game 1 of the best-of-three series is at Viking Field Thursday at 7 p.m. Game 2 is Saturday at 2 p.m. at Northwest Rankin, and if a Game 3 is needed it’ll be back at WC on Monday night.

“It’s a good feeling, for sure,” Warren Central pitcher Booth Buys said of the Vikings’ sudden status as favorites in Class 6A. “I feel like we earned that with what we’ve accomplished. We’ve been able to show people we are the real deal. But we can’t be big-headed about it.”

Warren Central (20-6) won the Division 4-6A championship and ran a gauntlet to reach the 20-win plateau that’s the mark of a successful season. It faced six of the 15 other teams still alive in the Class 6A playoffs and went 9-2 against them.

Of Warren Central’s six losses, four have been by one run. The other two were by two runs. Every team it lost to is still alive in the postseason.

Unlike in years past, there’s also not a dominant team in the North Half of the bracket. The Vikings were eliminated in the quarterfinals last year by a DeSoto Central squad that featured four Division I signees. In 2013, it was eventual champion Southaven.

This time around, the bracket is wide open for Warren Central to make a run toward its first state championship since 2001.

“We know we’re not going to face anybody that’s absolutely better than us,” said second baseman Conner Wilkinson, a Copiah-Lincoln Community College signee who is hitting .358 with 21 RBIs this season. “We can go toe to toe with anybody in the state, and we showed it. It was fun facing all those great arms, because now you know we can handle it.”

It’s a good thing Warren Central is entering the playoffs as a battle-tested group, because they’ll face a tough road to Trustmark Park and the state finals.

Northwest Rankin (20-8) is another proven program that has played some of the state’s best teams and held its own. The Cougars are led at the plate by senior Ian Ladner (.333, five home runs, 31 RBIs) and junior Luke Files (.400, seven doubles, 24 runs scored).

Files is also the team’s top pitcher, with a 6-1 record and 1.69 ERA in 37 1/3 innings.

Warren Central beat Northwest Rankin 5-4 on Feb. 27. That was the second game of the year for both teams, and a difficult gauge of how they stack up against each other. Historically, however, the teams have played competitive games.

Warren Central has won the last two in the series — both one-run games — after Northwest Rankin won the previous five over a three-year span. Six of the last 11 meetings since 2008 have been decided by one or two runs.

“It was early when we played them, but we know they’re a good team and we’ve got to be ready to play because they’re a good program. Always have been,” said Buys, who will likely start Game 2 of the series. “It’s just two good teams going against each other, that both want it really bad, and something’s got to give.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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