Greenville’s Tiarra Jackson crosses home plate ahead of the tag of Warren Central catcher Anna Jones during Greenville’s 9-4 win over WC on Thursday. (C. Todd ShermanThe Vicksburg Post)

[8/15/03]In its first home game of the slow-pitch softball season on Thursday, Warren Central showed its inexperience in a 9-4 loss to Greenville.

The Lady Vikes (1-1) committed seven errors and struggled with consistency at the plate, but coach Lucy Young said she wasn’t surprised by what she saw.

“This is a good Greenville team. The girls are fast, they’re strong and they always play a good game of softball,” Young said. “They played together a lot in the summer and just the strength of their hitting is the major thing that they have going for them.

“What I thought was going to happen kind of came to be the long balls, and then moving back on those and having some drop in.”

Young said the hitters had trouble getting into a rhythm because Greenville pitcher Jessica Ayers couldn’t find a rhythm. Ayers walked eight in seven innings.

“Our top of the lineup, we’ve got to hit consistently,” Young said. “It’s difficult against a pitcher who’s so inconsistent like that, but not an excuse in that they’ve got to select good pitches and hit those.”

The two teams stayed close with a 3-2 Greenville lead after four innings.

Greenville then opened it up in the top of the fifth when LaShay Barksdale hit a two-run inside-the-park home run. Following a single by Markeeta Washington, Kendria Morey doubled to bring the score to 6-2.

But the Lady Vikes trimmed the lead in the bottom half.

Brittany Fuller led off with a walk and Keisha Blue followed with a single.

Tranyce Peoples flied out to right center, and Fuller tagged up. She then tried to take home, got in a rundown situation and luckily escaped on a dropped throw to score the run.

With Peoples advancing to third on the play, Candice McKay was able to bring in the run with a groundout to shortstop, cutting the lead to 6-4.

Greenville came up big again in the top of the seventh to assure the win, scoring three runs helped largely by a pair of fielding errors by Warren Central.

“We made some mistakes,” Young said. “And early on in the season there’s nothing I’ve seen in the mistakes we’ve made that we can’t correct.”

Franklin 9-3 PCA 2-12

Franklin Academy scored nine unearned runs thanks to six Porters Chapel errors to hand PCA its first loss of the season, 9-2..

The Lady Eagles bounced back in the second game for a 12-3 victory.

In the opener, Lauren Johnson went 2-for-3 in the loss. Johnson allowed three Franklin hits to take her first loss of the season on the mound.

In the second game, Amy Beaugh had a pair of hits, while Annie Beaugh went 1-for-2 with two runs scored and three RBIs. Betsy Bryan picked up her second win of the year on the mound.

PCA (3-1) will be at Pine Hills on Monday.