Adam Lee gets one more chance at some Viking Field glory.

If you go

What: Madison Central Regional, Starkville at WC

Where: Viking Field

Time: Thursday, 7 p.m.

The Warren Central senior third baseman will lead the Vikings into Thursday night’s clash with Starkville in the opening game of the Class 5A Madison Central Regional. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. at Viking Field.

Despite a 9-18 regular season, Lee said he is looking forward to the playoffs. The Vikings earned the opening round host honors by finishing second in Division 4-5A with a 6-3 record. Starkville (18-6) finished third in Division 1-5A. Following Thursday’s game, both teams will advance to Madison Central (18-4), the Division 3-5A champion, to finish out the double-elimination tournament Friday and Saturday.

“It’s been a long road, but I’m looking forward to it. This is it for me and I want to go all out,” Lee said during Tuesday’s practice at Viking Field.

Lee has enjoyed a standout senior season, batting a team-best .398 with 17 RBIs and 21 runs scored.

“It’s been a good year even though I am disappointed with our record. It doesn’t show how much better we’ve been this season. We’re more bonded as a team. We’ve got a big group of juniors and some more young guys behind them and with the work coach (Josh) Abraham has been giving them, it’s going to make them better for next season,” Lee said. “I don’t think people realize how much growing you do between your junior and senior year.”

Abraham has preached this week about a new start for his team.

“We’re excited that they’ve awarded the No. 2 team out of the division a home playoff game. We’re all 0-0 and it’s good to get a fresh start,” Abraham said. “The guys have really responded by having two good days of practice.”

Starkville, however, will present another tough challenge. That’s nothing new for WC. Since drawing their record to 9-13, the Vikings lost to five playoff bound teams including Vicksburg (10-5), Madison Central (7-0), Northwest Rankin (6-2) and Oak Grove twice in the last 10 days.

“Starkville is a very aggressive, very athletic team,” Abraham said. As an assistant last year at Tupelo, he saw the Yellow Jackets three times during the season.

“They have a hard thrower in R.J. Johnson and what I call a strike thrower in (Colin) Olson,” Abraham said. “They are also pretty good with the sticks. Chuck Tillery and Jayson Keel are a good 1-2 at the top and then they  have a left-handed bat in Daniel Forde who has some pop. Johnson can swing it, too.”

Johnson is 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds while Forde is 6-2.

The Vikings’ troubles this season have come at the plate, where they have hit only .269 as a team. After Lee, only De Kelley is hitting over .300 at .333. The team has just two home runs and only 47 extra base hits.

“We’ve been working diligently at the plate and I think our results will be better than what we’ve done to this point,” Abraham said.

Dylan Wooten will grab the start for the Vikings on the mound. He is 1-4 with a 5.47 ERA.

“We’re going to go with Dylan. He throws strikes and he mixes his pitches well,” Abraham added.

The winner of Thursday’s game will face Madison Central at 4 p.m. in Madison. The loser will face the loser of the Friday afternoon game at 7.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com