Vicksburg pitcher Faith Thomas was a late arrival to Bazinsky Park and she walked the first Greenville-Weston batter she faced.

But from there, she locked into a groove, striking out 13 and leading the Missy Gators to an 11-1 win over Greenville-Weston on Tuesday.

“I got here late and it threw me off a bit,” Thomas said. “I just got back into rhythm. I just do what she (assistant coach Bethany Dykes) tells me to pitch and hit the corners.”

At one point, Thomas struck out seven in a row and has already tallied 73 this season. The 13 punchouts tied a season-high against Riverside earlier this season.

“She’s really been working on that,” Vicksburg coach Amanda Yocum said. “We’ve got a lot of trust in her that if she’s got a full count, we can count on her to throw a strike. She’s working on a lot of pitches. I would’ve liked to have got her some relief, but she had something going and I didn’t want to break that momentum.”

Greenville-Weston (2-5, 0-2 Region 4-6A) took advantage of an early walk, scoring its lone run on an error in the first, but Thomas struck out the next two she faced and got a easy tapper to second to end the top half.

In the bottom of the frame, Vicksburg put on its walking shoes to the tune of five walks. There was also a RBI single by Morgan Callender to lift Vicksburg to a 6-1 advantage. In the third, leading 7-1, the Missy Gators (5-6, 1-0) finally got some hits to drop. Kortni Newman opened the frame with a double rapped off the center field fence and she later scored on an error. Callender added a RBI triple to her tally.

The win was an important one for the Missy Gators, as another win over Greenville-Weston on April 12 will lock up the second seed out of Division 4-6A. Their first meeting with archrival Warren Central was rained out and will be played April 4 at 5 p.m.

“I was pleased overall with the effort,” Yocum said. “I wanted to keep their runs down in case we get into a case of run differential at the end of the year. We got the split against Warren Central last year, but I’d like to give them a better pair of games and see what happens.”

Cathedral 13, St. Aloysius 6

The Lady Flashes were down 6-3 going into the seventh inning, with a strong chance to rally for a win against archrival Cathedral (9-5-1, 2-0 Division 7-1A).

But one bad inning — when the Lady Flashes (4-9, 0-2) gave up seven runs in the seventh off two errors and seven hits — proved to be their undoing as they dropped their seventh game in a row. In that span, they have been outscored 59-11.

St. Al rallied for three runs in the bottom of the frame, propelled by an RBI triple by Allie Willis, but the damage was done.

“We’ve got to cut down on the errors,” St. Al coach Gene Rogillio said. “Every game, we’ve had that one bad inning that’s cost us. If we played like we did in the bottom of the seventh, we’ll be all right.”