Warren Central coach Dana McGivney chalked up her team’s subpar play in Saturday’s classic games as a learning experience. On Thursday, the Lady Vikes were ready for the real deal.

Warren Central scored in every inning and pounded Ridgeland 12-7 at Lucy Young Field in its home opener.

“We did hit the ball well tonight,” McGivney said of her team’s nine hits, which included three for extra bases. “Last Saturday in the Classic games, we just looked young and nervous. It was a learning experience. But we also were playing the (Class) 5A champions from last year in Madison Central and that had a lot do with it. Tonight we were more relaxed.”

The Lady Vikes exploded for an 8-2 lead after three innings. Then the Lady Vikes had a fourth-inning meltdown that led to five runs for Ridgeland (1-2), allowing the visitors to get back in the game. Mallory Reynolds, a transfer from South Carolina, came in and slammed the door on the Lady Titans, tossing three scoreless innings to close the game.

“We had that one bad inning, but we didn’t let it get to us,” McGivney said.

Up just 8-7, WC scratched home a run in the bottom of the fourth when Blair Thornton reached on an infield single, stole second, went to third on a groundout and then scored on Chasity Hearn’s sacrifice to go up 9-7. Thornton’s steal was one of eight for the game for WC.

“We gave up eight steals and had nine passed balls. You can’t win like that,” Ridgeland coach Barry Boler said.

Reynolds came on in the top of the fifth in relief of WC starter Chelsea Worley, who pitched the first four innings and got the win. Reynolds retired the side in order by getting three straight groundball outs.

“My change up was on and I also threw a lot of curves,” said Reynolds, who didn’t know how much she could play after suffering a knee injury in soccer in mid-December. She also didn’t play high school softball in South Carolina.

“I actually played with a summer travel team. For the past two years, I rotated in to pitch,” Reynolds said. In three innings of work against Ridgeland, she allowed just one hit, a sixth inning single, struck out two and walked none.

Worley walked five and WC also had five errors in the first four innings. Ridgeland helped out with five errors, including three in the fifth inning to help score pinch runner Lindsey Barfield to make it 10-7.

Hearn drove in three runs off two hits and scored twice. Alexis Patterson had a RBI double, while Reynolds had a single and a triple.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com