Warren Central pinch-hitter Kaci Harris hits the ball in the sixth inning on Monday. She reached base on an error and brought in two runs to give the Lady Vikes a 4-2 win over Clinton. (Meredith Spencer The Vicksburg Post)

[9/28/04]The birthday girl gave herself a present.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning, Saleda Montgomery coaxed a grounder from Clinton’s top hitter to secure Warren Central’s 4-2 win in a makeup game on Monday.

“I just kept telling myself to just pitch inside,” said Montgomery, who shared her birthday on Monday with teammate Anna Griffing. “If I kept it inside I thought they would pop it up.”

Montgomery’s pitching and the defense behind her carried the Lady Vikes (18-6) on a day when their hitting never could quite come through.

“We’ve been working on our hitting, and it’s a bad time for it to happen toward the end of the season,” WC coach Lucy Young said. “We get a few hits, but we don’t hit consistently.”

WC mustered only five hits, but benefited from eight Clinton errors the biggest of which came in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Tied at 2 with two outs and the bases loaded, pinch-hitter Kaci Harris grounded to third base. Clinton’s Patti Collins fielded the ball, but made an errant throw to second base and the ball coasted into right field. Lauren Anderson and Shawn Johnson scored on the play to give WC the cushion it needed.

“That was a great thing for us and really a back breaker for them,” Young said. “Stuff like that happens. It could have been an easy, routine play and she maybe threw the ball a little too hard, a little too low. Luckily we had runners on base at that time in scoring position.”

The two runs provided Montgomery the insurance she needed to finish out the game.

“When we got those two runs, I said all we need to do now is hold them on defense and we had the game,” she said.

An error by Kristin Linson in the seventh allowed Clinton’s Sarah Finch to reach base. Maranda Anderson and Lauren Goolsby then singled to load the bases before Etta Lewis hit a dribbler to Lauren Anderson at first base for the final out.

Linson singled in Johnson to put WC ahead 1-0 in the second inning. In the next inning, Cookie Johnson hit the ball over Finch in left-center, and she misplayed it to allow Brittany Fuller to score.

Clinton trimmed the lead to 2-1 in the fourth when Lewis brought home Goolsby with a sacrifice fly. The Lady Arrows (11-13) tied the game in the fifth when Brianna Pendergrass doubled over the head of Brittany Fuller in left field to send home Finch.

Warren Central continues to prepare for the playoffs today at Brandon at 6 p.m. The Lady Vikes moved Thursday’s home game against Cleveland to Monday at 5:30 p.m., and Monday’s game at Cleveland has been canceled.