Kelcey Hudson of Vicksburg High tags out Natchez’s Chrystal Sylvester when she takes her hand off third base. (The Vicksburg Post/ C. TODD SHERMAN)

[08/26/01] Warren Central used a five-run fifth inning to beat Natchez and the clock and improve to 2-0 at home tournaments this season.

“We wanted to make it exciting,” WC coach Lucy Young said of her team’s come-from-behind 10-8 win in the championship game of the Lady Vikes Invitational. “So far this season, we had not had to come from behind, so that was a good lesson for us, to never give up.”

Ashley Chaney went 3-for-3 and Katie Barnett was 2-for-3 for WC, which used four Natchez errors to help erase an 8-5 deficit in its last at-bat.

It was a change of pace from WC’s first two wins of the day 15-0 over Forest Hill and 11-6 over Hollandale-Simmons.

Vicksburg (4-4) beat Yazoo City, 12-7, in its opener but fell to Natchez, 9-4, to prevent an all-Warren County title game.

“We hit the ball better … we just had some errors that hurt us,” VHS coach Jenifer Wilkerson said. “We have to come back Monday and work on that.”

The Missy Gators play two tough home games this week: Clinton on Tuesday and Northwest Rankin on Thursday.

“Hopefully, we got the bad games out of our system,” Wilkerson said.

Against Natchez, WC (9-1) was down by three runs going into the fifth and final inning with just 10 minutes remaining on the one-hour time limit.

Barnett and Chaney started the inning with back-to-back singles and advanced to second and third when the left-centerfielder overran the ball. Both scored on an overthrow to first on Marilyn Landers’ grounder to third. Landers’ wound up at third and tied it at 8-8 on Cookie Johnson’s RBI single up the middle.

Johnson scored the go-ahead run on two straight bad throws on an attempted forceout at second and pinch-runner Alisha Lawrence tacked on one more run on an overthrow to home.

“Both teams had some hits and both teams had some errors … the lead changed hands several times,” said Young, whose team outscored opponents 26-0 in its first seven innings. “It was a good day for us.”

Tranyce Peoples and Rebecca Chick had RBIs for WC, which had 10 hits and five errors. Hayley Martin pitched all three wins.

Toya Patterson went 3-for-3 with an RBI to lead Natchez.

Lady Vikes’ infielders booted the first three balls that came their way and finished with four errors in the first inning, but they settled down and committed just one more the rest of the way. Natchez got just one run out of the first-inning mishaps.

“We were fortunate,” Young said.

The tournament was backed up more than an hour when Forest Hill arrived late. The team didn’t have a bus driver.

The next tournament for the Lady Vikes, who also won their preseason tournament, is the Clinton Invitational on Sept. 8. WC will be at East Side in Cleveland Tuesday.

Vicksburg 12, Yazoo City 7

Kelsey Hudson had three hits and four RBIs and Wendy Womble drove in a pair of runs for the Missy Gators, who overcame a 3-1 deficit in the second. Kelli Ouzts had two hits and an RBI and Dayna Nugent also drove in a run.

WC 15, Forest Hill 0

Lynn Strawn, Johnson, Peoples and Barnett had two RBIs apiece while Anna Mitchell, Landers, Chick and Martin all drove in a run apiece as WC scored nine in the first and never looked back. Barnett had two of WC’s eight hits.

WC 11, Simmons 6

The Lady Vikes starters jumped to an 11-0 lead in the first two innings and Hollandale-Simmons managed six against backups in the fifth inning.

Barnett had a triple and three RBIs while Keisha Blue and Martin had two apiece. Strawn and

Landers had two hits and Johnson and Mitchell each had an RBI.

Simmons outhit WC, 9-8, but committed eight errors to WC’s two.

Natchez 9, Vicksburg 4

Emily Mathes had two RBIs for the Missy Gators, who led 2-0 early, but managed just six hits while committing nine errors. Viola Howard and LaToya Trunell had an RBI apiece. Natchez cranked out 13 hits and blew open a 6-4 lead with three runs in the sixth.