All three phases of the game were in impressive form for visiting Madison Central and that was more than enough to trump a good defensive effort from Warren Central in the Vikings’ last regular-season home game Thursday night at Viking Field.

Three Jaguar pitchers combined on a complete game shutout and the Jaguar bats ripped 13 hits, including four doubles, to take the 7-0 win. The two teams will likely meet again next week in Madison for the Region 4-5A Tournament. WC (9-15) will host either Starkville or South Panola next Thursday and then both teams will advance to finish the double-elimination tournament at Madison Central on April 24-25.

Despite the loss, WC coach Josh Abraham said the Vikings can build off a solid defensive game where they committed no errors and turned two double plays.

“We absolutely had a great defensive performance and we’ll take that into our game Saturday with Oak Grove. We just need to get better at the plate. We’ll work on taking better cuts,” Abraham said.

The Vikings had just three hits against the trio of Madison Central pitchers. The Jaguars went in reverse order, starting their closer and then finishing up with their ace. C.J. Hollins went five strong innings for Madison Central (18-4). Kent Williford pitched a scoreless sixth and Jared Rutland finished up, striking out the final two batters after allowing a pair of one-out walks.

“The first guy threw sidearm and we haven’t seen that this year,” Abraham said. “He did a great job and kept us off-balance.”

De Kelley had a third-inning single and Jason Pettway had a fourth inning hit against Hollins, who struck out eight.

Madison’s bats, meanwhile, went to work in the second inning against WC starter Dylan Wooten. A one-out double by Alex Collum was followed by four singles through right-side holes. The hits knocked in four runs and added to a 1-0 lead from the first to make it 5-0. A double by Josh Bouldin capped the rally for a 6-0 lead. An excellent 6-4-3 double play got Wooten out of the fourth and he then kept Madison off the board in the fifth and sixth. WC’s best chance to score came against Williford in the sixth when Darrick White led off with a single and then went to second on a ground out. Williford, though, got another ground out and a pop up to third to end the inning. Jordan led off the seventh with his third hit and third run scored after a double by Peyton Johnson to account for the 7-0 final.  Rutland and Robert Wilson each had two hits.

“We played well,” Jaguars coach Gregg Perry said. “We hit line drives. I think we have a shot at getting back to Trustmark Park because we have good depth on the mound.”

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com