Warren Central senior tosses 1-hitter against Northwest Rankin.

BRANDON – While he was warming up for Saturday’s start against No. 1 Northwest Rankin, Nick Carson didn’t feel like he had his best stuff.

Somewhere between the bullpen and the pitcher’s mound, he found it.

Carson, a senior right-hander, fired a one-hit shutout. He struck out five, walked two and allowed only three balls out of the infield, leading Warren Central to a 2-0 upset of the defending Class 5A champions.

WC catcher Ben Koestler drove in the only runs of the game, on a double in the fourth inning. Eric Douglas had three hits for the Vikings.

&#8220I didn’t event think about it like they were the number one team in the state. I wanted to redeem myself from the loss to Vicksburg, so I did all I could do,” said Carson, who was shelled for five first-inning runs in his last outing, against archrival Vicksburg on March 24.

The Vikings’ victory gives them a major confidence boost heading into Tuesday’s Division 3-5A showdown with archrival Vicksburg. WC (13-6) can win the division and host a first-round playoff regional with a win, while a VHS win would create a three-way tie. Warren Central and Vicksburg have split their first two meetings this season.

&#8220Hopefully this will boost us up and open our eyes, that it doesn’t matter whose across the dugout from us. If we show up and play baseball, we can beat anybody in the state,” WC coach Randy Broome said. &#8220With our schedule and the teams we’ve faced this year in district, out of district, out of state, it should have prepared this team to play good baseball.”

Against Northwest Rankin (17-3), Carson outdueled Cougar ace Todd McInnis for six innings. His fastball topped out at 84 mph and he painted the corners like a pro, constantly jamming the Northwest hitters and inducing weak grounders or pop-ups. Of Carson’s five strikeouts, three came on called third strikes on the corners, and only two balls were hit hard off him – a line drive to short in the sixth inning, and a game-ending fly out to right by Jordan King.

Northwest’s Wesley Johnson fought off a tough pitch for a bloop single in the first inning, Carson walked King to start the second, and that was just about it for the Cougars’ offense. Carson retired the next 15 batters he faced, not allowing another base runner until.

&#8220I think (Carson) did a great job of throwing the baseball with two strikes, but if you can’t beat a guy throwing 82 or 83 mph you’re not going to win a state championship,” said Northwest Rankin coach Jeff McClaskey, a former Porters Chapel Academy skipper. &#8220They just flat-out outhit us at the plate.”

Warren Central fared better against McInnis, a preseason All-American, but didn’t put enough hits together to mount a threat until the fourth inning.

After Douglas reached on a one-out single, Josh Gordon doubled after an 11-pitch at-bat to put runners on second and third.

Koestler then bounced a ball just inside the third-base bag, bringing in Douglas and Gordon for a 2-0 lead.

In all, WC managed seven hits off McInnis in six innings. He struck out two and walked none, pitching well enough for his team to win, but not good enough to beat Carson.

&#8220We got in the box ready to hit. We knew he was going to be around the zone,” Broome said of McInnis. &#8220We’ve been facing arms like this all year long. We got beat by one at Vicksburg. They’re a lot alike. We didn’t do a good job against Vicksburg of hitting fastballs, and we did do that today.”

WC 18, Brandon 6.

Eric Douglas had three doubles and a triple to spearhead an 18-hit Warren Central attack in their second game on Saturday.

Kyle Calhoun and Harry Ferguson each had three hits, while Jonathan Ettinger, Cody Ferguson and Josh Gordon each had two. Gordon hit a monstrous three-run home run that broke part of the Brandon High scoreboard.

Jeff Ward improved to 3-0 with the victory.