Vikings reclaim division championship|[4/14/05]
Published 12:00 am Thursday, April 14, 2005
The Warren Central offense staked Drew Warnock to a big lead Wednesday night and the Viking senior did the rest.
Warnock scattered five hits and allowed only two runs in the third inning as Warren Central defeated Vicksburg 8-2 to reclaim the Division 6-5A championship after the Gators held the title for the past two years.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Warnock, who struck out seven Gators over seven innings of work.
Not only does the victory give WC the division title, it guarantees the Vikings home-field advantage in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs. Warren Central will open the best-of-three series against the winner of Friday night’s Hattiesburg-Picayune matchup. Vicksburg will play on the road at defending Class 5A state champion Oak Grove.
“We have to put this one behind us and play hard,” said Vicksburg’s Steven Price, who had three of the Gators’ five hits. “It will come.”
Price watched alongside his Gators’ teammates as the Vikings exploded for six runs in the first inning off starter John Hendrix. WC sent 10 batters to the plate, had four hits and took advantage of a pair of Gator errors.
Eric Douglas’ RBI single coupled with a two-RBI double by Ryan Grey and a two-RBI single by Will Mendrop gave WC the big advantage before the Gators came to the plate.
“They jumped on us,” Price said. “Then Drew did a great job not letting us back in the game.”
Vicksburg had a chance in the bottom of the first as Steven Price led off the inning with a single and Gerald Mims walked. Two strikeouts and a diving snag of a sinking line drive by Cody Ferguson ended the threat.
Douglas again got to Hendrix in the top of the second inning with a two-RBI double to score Ben Koestler and Zach Balthrop as the Vikings took an 8-0 lead. Hendrix, a senior who was coming off an injury last season, was lifted for Stanton Price after Douglas’ double.
“John’s a warrior and I had no problem sticking with him,” VHS coach Jamie Creel said. “He has gone above and beyond the call of duty for us and I am not about to throw the towel in on John Hendrix.”
Hendrix allowed eight runs on six hits and took the loss.
Stanton Price, a left-handed freshman, retired 17 of 19 batters he faced and allowed only a third-inning single to Warnock.
“One thing we talked about was that we had to hit a lefty,” WC coach Randy Broome said. “It seems like Vicksburg has every left-handed pitcher in the county. We got the lead, but Stanton came in and shut the door on us.”
While the Viking bats went silent, Vicksburg managed a pair of runs in the third inning on an RBI sacrifice fly by Mims and an RBI from Jordan Henry. Warnock then struck out Stanton Price and Tyler Wells to strand Henry at first base.
The Gators got runners on second base in both the fifth and sixth inning, but each time Warnock pitched out of the jam.
“Drew pitched great tonight,” Broome said. “He got in a couple jams, but pitched his way out of them.”
Steven Price hit his third single of the night in the seventh inning with one out, but Warnock retired Mims and Henry to end the game.
“They did what they had to tonight,” Creel said. “They outplayed us, that’s for sure.”
Warren Central is scheduled to play Callaway on Monday before opening the playoffs a week from today.
Vicksburg is scheduled to play Riverside at Bazinsky Field on Friday, then Clinton on Saturday and Madison Central on Monday in the regular season finale.
“It’s about time we bring the division championship back here,” Warnock said. “The team won this game tonight.”