From staff reports

Keaton Sanders threw six strong innings, Heath Carroll and Adam Lee each had two hits, and Warren Central beat Greenville-Weston 9-3 on Wednesday.

The win inched Warren Central closer to clinching second place in Division 4-5A. The Vikings (7-15, 5-2) need to win one of two remaining games against Greenville to finish second. The teams play again at WC on April 21, and have another makeup game that has not been rescheduled. Clinton has already clinched the division title.

On Wednesday, the Vikings took care of business early. They led 8-1 after four innings, then turned it over to Sanders. He allowed two runs and two hits in six innings.

“Keaton threw well,” WC coach Randy Broome said. “He stayed focused and stayed on task. He got to 100 pitches because of a lack of strikes, but that wasn’t his fault.”

Broome added that while the big early lead was nice, he would have liked to have seen the Vikings put the game away by the mercy rule instead of letting the Hornets hang around.

“We’ve got to learn that if we have a chance to put somebody away we’ve got to do it,” Broome said. “That’s important, especially this time of year. If you can run-rule somebody and keep your pitcher’s pitch count down, you want to do that.”