[4/16/04]Warren Central was living on the edge Thursday night, and enjoying the view until Clinton second baseman Neil Barlow gave the Vikings a big two-handed shove.

Barlow, who was 3-for-4 on the night, hit a backbreaking three-run homer in the top of the fifth inning to blow open a close game and send the Arrows to a 10-4 win.

Johnny Turner, Alan Hayes and Corey Stevens each drove in two runs for Clinton (21-8), which scored five runs in the decisive fifth inning. Korey Cunningham scattered eight hits while striking out nine in a complete-game win.

Jake Turner was 2-for-3 with an RBI single for WC (18-8). Zach Balthrop was 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, but suffered the loss on the mound.

“We hung with them and played, played, played. Me and Cunningham were what-and-what for a long time,” Balthrop said. “That one inning … I left a bad pitch up and over in the zone for a good hitter, and he hit it out of the park. And my teammates and me paid for it.”

Balthrop pitched his way in and out of trouble throughout the early part of the game. Clinton touched Balthrop for three straight one-out hits and two runs in the top of the first, but he was able to escape the jam without further damage.

He got out of another bases-loaded jam in the second without allowing a run, and yet another in the third with only two runs.

Clinton held a 4-1 lead entering the fifth when Balthrop’s luck ran out.

He gave up a leadoff single to Mark Miley and walked Reed Prewitt to bring up Barlow. Balthrop left a change-up in the zone, and Clinton’s No. 8 hitter drove it over the left center field fence to make it 7-1.

Eric Douglas relieved Balthrop after the homer, and allowed two more runs on RBI singles by Stevens and Harris before getting out of the inning. By then, Clinton held a 9-1 lead and the game was all but over.

“You keep giving yourself chances with runners on, and eventually you’re going to get some hits and score runs,” Clinton coach Kelly Greer said, adding that Barlow’s homer was a rarity for the Arrows. “We haven’t hit but 11 (home runs), so I’ll take them when we can get them.”

WC did rally late, but was too far behind to come back. Turner’s two-out, RBI single and Balthrop’s two-run double in the sixth cut it to 9-4, but Clinton tacked on an unearned insurance run in the seventh to finish the job.

The Vikings misfired on several occasions early. They left a runner on third base in the first and third innings, had another thrown out at the plate in the second, and managed only one run in the fourth after putting men on at first and second with one out.

“You don’t know whether it hurt you or not, but definitely if you scratch a run here or scratch a run there then mentality-wise maybe we’re still in this thing,” Broome said of the Vikings’ missed opportunities.