Warren Central coach Dana McGivney hopes a couple of summer months of togetherness will help her team perform like DeSoto Central did Monday in wrapping up a first-round Class 6A playoff series.

The Lady Jaguars got at least one hit from all nine starters in a 15-3 beatdown of the Lady Vikes (14-12) to sweep the opening-round series. Warren Central ends the season for the second straight year in the first round.

McGivney hopes to change the program’s fortunes by having the Lady Vikes stay together and play some summer tournaments. The club loses just one senior, catcher Blair Thornton, while rising star Chasity Hearn will be playing on an elite travel team from Flowood.

“We’re actually looking at playing some tournaments in June with the group we have back, like the Rumble on the River and some other ones in the area. Sissy (Hearn) will play with us when she can. The big thing is we want to get better. We want to work on it year round,” McGivney said.

DeSoto Central (22-3-1) moves on to face either Madison Central in the next round.

“We came out hitting and now we’re in the second round,” DeSoto Central assistant coach Melissa Shaw said. “This was the hottest day we’ve played in, but we already had a win on our side.”

WC made it a good game until third inning. They were down just 2-1 after two complete but DeSoto erupted for six runs in third. Brittany Stewart had a leadoff double to start things and Libby Goranson followed with a triple off WC starter Chelsea Worley. Four singles in between a hit batter plated four more runs to make it 8-1. Worley was then pulled for Mallory Reynolds.

The Lady Vikes got a run back in the bottom of the third when Thornton doubled, then scored on a single by Worley.

DeSoto got to Reynolds with four runs in the fourth. The Lady Jaguars had five hits, including Stewart’s third RBI of the game.

Katie Busby walked and then beat out a rundown to score WC’s final run to make it 12-3. Worley came back to pitch and had a scoreless fifth inning, but allowed three more runs in the sixth to account for the final.

“They are a good team but we didn’t play good,” McGivney said. “We should have had more runs than what we got. We had some good at-bats, but we needed more of them.”

Thornton and Sydnei Smith had a double and scored a run apiece to pace WC. They had four hits off two DeSoto pitchers. Stewart got the win by going the first three innings. Casey Baddley pitched the final three.

Stewart had three hits and three RBIs. Goranson, Kaitlin Moore and Baddley all had two hits.