[3/19/2003] Warren Central narrowly dodged the thunderstorms that hit the area Tuesday night, but the Vikings were less fortunate when it came to Clinton’s Mike Cashion.

Cashion, who was also the winning pitcher, went 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs. His three-run blast in the top of the fifth proved to be the difference, as the Arrows (12-2, 3-0 Division 4-5A) went on to beat WC 6-4.

“We knew going into the game that Clinton has a good squad and we’ve got to keep the ball down on them. We left two balls up in the zone and they got hammered,” WC coach Randy Broome said.

Greg Carroll was 2-for-4 with a double for WC, Neil Tillotson went 2-for-3 with a double, Jeremy Ferguson had two hits, and John Rice Pettway was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Joel Hurt was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs for Clinton.

Warren Central (6-6, 1-2) outhit Clinton 11-9, but squandered numerous opportunities to put runs on the board.

“We’ve got to hit in key situations. We put 10 hits on the board, but we also left them. I know we left runners at second or second and third, or third at least three times tonight,” Broome said.

WC scratched a single run to go ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first, but Cashion tied it with a solo homer in the top of the fourth.

After Hurt put Clinton ahead with a solo homer in the fifth, Clinton’s next two batters reached base to bring up Cashion again. This time, he launched a three-run homer into the darkening night to make it 5-1.

“Warren Central has a good team, we just happened to hit a couple of long balls, and that’s what we’ve been doing all year,” Clinton coach Kelly Greer said.

WC narrowed the gap again in the bottom of the fifth, plating two runs on Allen Carlisle’s RBI single to cut it to 5-3.

The Vikings couldn’t get any closer, though.

Hurt added an insurance run with an RBI double in the sixth, and Chase Dorsey retired the Vikings in order in the seventh. He got the first two WC hitters to fly out, then got Tom Corbin to swing at a pitch low and away as lightning flashed all around Viking Field.

The start of the game was moved up two hours, to 5 p.m., to avoid the thunderstorms that passed through the area Tuesday night. Less than 30 minutes after the end of the game, a line of severe thunderstorms began to move through the area.

The loss, coupled with Vicksburg’s 14-2 win over Forest Hill on Tuesday, put WC two games behind Clinton in the division race and one game back of VHS for the final playoff spot.