Warren Central falters in first round|[10/12/05]

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Untimely errors and poor base running were enough to end the playoff run for the Warren Central Lady Vikes Tuesday afternoon against Harrison Central.

The Red Rebelettes swept a first round, Class 5A playoff series from the Lady Vikes 5-2 and 6-4.

Harrison Central (7-7), which missed an entire month of the season due to Hurricane Katrina, advanced to the second round against Moss Point on Saturday. Warren Central ended its season with a 17-12 record.

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Harrison Central coach Jimmy Parker was elated for his team, especially with all they’ve been through from Katrina.

&#8221We’re such a young team, some of them didn’t even know why we were up here, especially after missing the whole month of September,“ Parker said. &#8221It wasn’t until Sept. 25 when the coast’s softball coaches got together to determine if we’d keep playing. There were only three playable fields available and nobody had lights. Now I’m just missing three players, everybody else either stayed or has come back.“

Veteran Lady Vikes coach Lucy Young says her team just couldn’t generate enough offense to make up for its shaky defense.

&#8221We won 17 games and we’re proud of that, but we kept hoping our hitting would come around and it has not,“ Young said.

The Lady Vikes were limited to just six runs off a combined 17 hits in the two-game series. They may have gotten a couple more runs in the deciding second game with better base running.

Trailing 3-2, Kari Lieberman came up with a two-run triple to left-center in the fifth, scoring Amanda Doyle and Kaitlyn Patton to give WC a 4-3 lead. With just one out, Lieberman had a chance to score on Shawn Johnson’s grounder to the right side, but did not make a break to home plate. Mandy Fuller then lined out to end the inning.

Harrison Central tied it in the bottom half of the fifth on a hit by Jasmine Shelby. WC appeared ready to retake the lead in the sixth following one-out hits from Tiffany Fuller and Bridget Dillon.

Young sent in Kendra Tolliver to run for Dillon with two out. But Tolliver got a poor jump off a soft-lining shot by Amanda Doyle and was forced out at second on Diamond Oatis’ throw from center.

&#8221That shows the lack of maturity we have on this team, especially when we bring players off the bench,“ Young said of the base-running mistake.

Harrison Central took advantage, breaking the tie with a two-run rally in its half of the sixth. Nicole Scorby led off with a double and later scored the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice. The second run came after a WC infield throwing error to make it 6-4.

In Game 1, WC took a 2-1 lead in the third when Shawn Johnson scored on a hit by Mandy Fuller. Harrison Central came back in the fifth, stringing together two hits and an infield error to set up Shelby’s bases-clearing double to make it 4-2. An outfield error coupled with a single by Kaitlyn Bryant made it 5-2 in the sixth.

Shelby led Harrison in the series with four hits and four RBIs. Scorby had four hits and leadoff hitter Audria Hersey scored four runs.

WC was led by Johnson, who had a solo home run in Game 2. Doyle, Tiffany Fuller and Lieberman all had three hits.