WEST MONROE — Despite a third straight loss in the Chevron/Ouachita Tournament, the Warren Central Vikings are showing signs of improvement.

In a midday game at West Monroe, the Vikings took the top-ranked Class 5A team in Louisiana to a full seven innings before falling 12-6. The Rebels (11-4) got big games from their Nos. 4, 5 and 6 hitters, who went a combined 6-for-8 with nine RBIs.

WC coach Randy Broome, while encouraged by certain aspects of his team’s early start, felt it could have done better against West Monroe, the 2007 Louisiana Class 5A runner-up.

“We’re still trying to get over the hump. We’ve got a young staff and we put too many on with walks and hit batters. It makes it tough on everybody. We did get two double plays and that could cover up some of the walks, but not all of them,” Broome said.

Three WC pitchers combined to walk eight Rebel batters and hit three others. The Rebels’ big three sticks made them pay. Chris Sinclair drove in two runs in the first after WC starter Heath Carroll walked three and hit one to force in two runs. Sinclair’s hit made it 4-0.

After the Vikings (3-7) scored twice in the top of the second, West Monroe got a three-run homer from Jeff Fuller to up the lead to 7-2.

The Vikings countered by getting a two-run double by Jimmie Elliott to close the gap to 7-4.

“I thought Warren Central swung the bat pretty good,” West Monroe coach Mark Sims said. “We just kind of outscored them today.”

WC was still in the game at 7-4 in the bottom of the fifth when reliever De White had control issues with four walks and a balk to chase home a Rebel run. Les Aulds made it 9-4 when he brought Sinclair in on a fielder’s choice.

Chris Snow pitched the sixth for WC and gave up a two-run double to Caleb Clowers, the Rebels’ No. 5 hitter, and a sacrifice fly to Cory White to make it 12-4.

The Vikings got two runs in their final at-bat when Carroll and Dylan Wooten scored off an errant throw.

Fuller led West Monroe with a double, home run and four RBIs. Clowers drove in three while Sinclair was 3-for-3 and drove in two.

Colin Brunder went four innings to get the win to move to 3-0 while Blake Brasell went the last three innings to gain the save.

Vicksburg 16, Tioga, La., 6

Vicksburg avoided going winless in the Monroe tournament by belting Tioga behind a 13-hit attack. Brian Fitzgerald had three hits and drove in four runs. Bowen Woodson also had three hits and drove in two, both coming off a first-inning single that gave Vicksburg a 4-0 lead.

Blake Hynum had a two-run double in the third to extend the Gators’ lead to 8-1. Ryan Ferrington also had a double for one of his two hits. The Gators (8-5) scored five more runs in the fourth to go up 15-4.

Kurt Cooksey pitched four innings to grab the win and Ferrington finished up in the fifth, ending the game by 10-run mercy rule.

West Ouachita 9, Vicksburg 6

West Ouachita scored four in the fourth inning to erase a 5-3 Vicksburg lead and handed the Gators their third loss in the Ouachita Tournament.

The Gators took their lead with home runs from Cooksey and Hynum, but walks and passed balls allowed the Chiefs to regain the lead. Fitzgerald took the loss for VHS while Jacob Hollis got the win for West Ouachita.

St. Aloysius 12, Raymond 0

Joseph Brown drove in two runs with a double while Regan Nosser drove in two with a single as St. Al (9-2) cruised to the five-inning win. Raymond made 10 errors to help out the Flashes.

Justin Rushing pitched five shutout innings to grab a win in his first start. Stephen Evans and Pierson Waring had doubles while Rushing drove in a run on a single.

Starkville Academy 14, PCA 11Lamar 6, PCA 3

A pair of early-inning meltdowns led to two losses for Porters Chapel (5-6) at the Veritas Tournament.

Against Starkville Academy, the Eagles gave up 12 runs in the bottom of the first and lost 14-11. Starkville only had five hits in the game, scoring most of its runs on walks. PCA outhit Starkville 14-5.

Later Saturday, Lamar scored four runs in the top of the first without a hit, and went on to beat PCA 6-3. PCA left the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, and the game was halted after that because of a two-hour time limit. The game against Starkville was also stopped by the time limit.