PORT GIBSON — After a 6-3 start, Port Gibson’s baseball schedule has gotten a lot tougher.

Saturday afternoon, as the rest of Port Gibson celebrated the town’s Heritage Festival, the Blue Waves stepped up to face the suddenly-hot Warren Central Vikings. WC was fresh off an emotional come-from-behind win the night before against Clinton at Viking Field.

The Vikings showed no ill effects from their escape against Clinton and produced a workman-like 12-0 pounding of the Blue Waves in four innings at the Claiborne County Fairgrounds.

The win is WC’s fourth straight and the Vikings improve to 10-7. The 10 wins equals last year’s total and is the most since 2006.

Port Gibson, meanwhile, has now lost four straight to fall to 6-7. The Blue Waves were beaten in the finals of their own Spring Break Classic by Natchez.

They dropped two division games to Columbia, which included a road defeat Friday night and then Saturday’s home clash with the Vikings.

“We didn’t get back until 2 a.m. from Columbia and then we had to come back today and play a good Warren Central team,” Port Gibson coach Dan Smith said. “We hope these games can make us better.”

Port Gibson made it a good game for two innings against the Vikings. They trailed just 1-0 as starting pitcher Dominique Savage mixed up his pitches to keep WC off-balanced.

“The first guy mixed it up pretty well, and then, we

figured him out,” WC coach Josh Abraham said.

That came in the third inning. Jimmie Elliott and Beau Wallace drew walks to start things. Savage came back to fan Dylan Wooten for the last of his three strikeouts, but then gave up singles to Carlos Gonzalez, Clayton Ashley and Jay Harper. Ashley and Harper’s hits were good for two runs each as WC went up 5-0.

After a pair of Blue Wave errors extended the inning, Savage began to labor. He walked three straight batters before getting out of the third with a flyout to left. He then walked another and hit a second to end his day in the fourth inning.

“Had we played defense behind him, he would’ve done better. We had to pitch Silento (Sayles) against Columbia and then we had to put Rudy (Wilson) up there,” Smith said.

Wilson walked six of the nine batters faced. He hit one and one reached on an error. A grounder to the mound ended the WC fourth with the Vikings up 12-0. In all, Port Gibson pitchers walked 12 and hit two.

Blake Jobe ended things quickly, facing just four batters in the bottom of the fourth. He struck out eight and allowed just two hits, singles to Sayles and Savage.

“Blake is really coming into his own. His velocity has picked up and he throws a very heavy ball,” Abraham said.

“Today was a good win, especially after an emotional win last night with Clinton. We just wanted to be pretty sound today, and we were.”

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com