BRANDON — Over the course of a long season, most teams hit a rough patch here and there. Warren Central has landed smack dab in the middle of one.

Cassandra Brown allowed four hits in a complete game victory, and Katie Caldwell had a backbreaking bases-clearing double as Brandon handed the Lady Vikes their third consecutive loss, 8-2 on Tuesday.

Warren Central (13-6) has been outscored 25-6 during its brief losing streak. It’ll try to snap out of it Thursday at Greenville-St. Joe.

“We should’ve hit her and hit her well. We just didn’t do it. We’ll work on it tomorrow. That’s all you can do,” WC coach Dana McGivney said. “We’ve got two weeks to work out the kinks before the playoffs. We’re going to practice hard every day and not going to quit.”

Brandon (17-4) led the whole way in Tuesday’s game. Amber Adcock and Kala Perry led off the bottom of the first inning with singles and eventually scored on groundouts, and the Lady Bulldogs added a pair of unearned runs in the second to take a 4-0 lead.

With two outs in the fifth, Brandon put together a rally that sealed the victory.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases before Marlee Warner hit an infield single to short to bring in a run. Caldwell then belted a line drive to the gap in right center for the bases-clearing double that made it 8-0.

“That’s (4-0) too close. You get a couple on base, a deep ball to the outfield, and it’s 4-4. Getting those extra runs made me feel better,” Brandon coach Heidi Hill said. “We’ve had trouble getting people in once we get them on base, so it was good to see us do that.”

Warren Central got two runs back in the fifth inning, one of them on an RBI single by Sydnei Smith, but never came close to getting back in the game.

Brown finished with five strikeouts, retired 12 of the first 14 batters she faced, and didn’t allow a runner past second base until the fifth inning. Another single by Smith and two walks in the seventh inning loaded the bases, but Brown got Mallory Reynolds to hit a sharp one-hopper back to the pitcher’s circle and threw to first for the game’s final out.

Smith finished 2-for-4 with an RBI for WC. Adcock was 3-for-4 with a triple and two runs scored for Brandon, Warner was 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs, and Caldwell was 2-for-4 with four RBIs.

“With a team like Brandon, you let them get up four or five runs and it definitely puts a damper on things,” McGivney said. “But we didn’t give up.”

Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com