WEST MONROE, La. – Drew Warnock and Joel Ramsey watched each other trade easy innings and zeroes all night Thursday.

For six innings, each one mowed down their opponent’s lineup and kept their own team in a tight, tension-filled game.

Finally, Ramsey took matters into his own hands.

The West Monroe pitcher delivered a go-ahead, RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning that broke a 1-1 tie, triggered a four-run rally and sent the Rebels to a 5-2 victory over Warren Central at the Ouachita tournament.

Ramsey also held WC to two runs on three hits. He walked one and struck out 11 to outduel Warnock, who scattered six hits over seven innings.

“It was a well-played, good high school baseball game. Both pitchers did a good job on each other’s offense,” West Monroe coach Keith Pevedo said. “I think their guy may have gotten a little worn down at the end. We put the ball in play hard and got a couple of runs late.”

Ryan Grey homered for Warren Central (10-3), which wasted an outstanding performance by Warnock.

The right-hander retired nine of 10 batters over the middle innings and finished with four strikeouts. He allowed only one run, on an RBI single by Chris Magee in the second inning, until running into a string of bad luck in the sixth.

West Monroe’s Jacob Brister led off with a double and Ramsey followed with his RBI double to put the Rebels ahead 2-1. Two batters later, Matt Gardner hit a grounder in the hole between first and second. WC’s Will Mendrop made a nice play to get to the ball, but was on a dead run and booted it.

A run scored on the infield single, and Nick Wade followed with a rocket that skipped over the glove of WC third baseman Zach Balthrop. Wade’s shot brought in another run, and Brian Winchester finished the inning two batters later with an RBI single to make it 5-1.

“We’d been hitting the ball hard all night, and it was finally just getting them to fall,” Ramsey said. “Just getting the timely hits put us ahead.”

The insurance runs proved to be vital for West Monroe. Grey’s two-out homer in the top of the seventh brought the Vikings to within 5-2, but Ramsey struck out Cody Ferguson to end the game and any thoughts of a comeback.

“That guy had already thrown 100 pitches in six innings, but we weren’t finishing those at-bats,” WC coach Randy Broome said. “We took some quality cuts at some quality pitches, but we were fouling them off. And against a good arm, you can’t do that.”