The seemingly endless parade of rainouts that has plagued high school baseball in Mississippi this spring has caused plenty of frustration among coaches and players. The silver lining, though, is that it’s also set the stage for a dramatic conclusion to the Division 3-6A playoff race.

The four teams in the division — Vicksburg, Warren Central, Clinton and Greenville-Weston — will play one last round of games beginning today. Two of the contests are make-up games from rainouts earlier this season.

Greenville has been eliminated from the playoff picture, but the round robin will determine who gets what seed for the Class 6A playoffs that begin April 20.

“It’s setting you up for the playoffs. We win all three and we’re champs,” Warren Central coach Josh Abraham said. “The fun thing is, when we get to school on Tuesday every day, we’re getting on a bus.”

Clinton, with a 5-1 record in the division, has the inside track to the division championship and the first-round bye that comes with it. The Arrows can wrap up the title by beating Vicksburg tonight and Warren Central on Wednesday. Both games are at Clinton.

Warren Central (13-9, 4-2 in division play) also controls its destiny. The Vikings will win the division by winning all three of their division games this week, beginning with tonight’s contest at Greenville.

WC, though, must shake off a disturbing slump. It has lost three straight games entering this week, and fell far behind in two of them.

“You have a great day of practice,” Abraham said of his plan to flush the losing streak from his players’ minds. “We’re going to get out there and have a great day of practice. The kids want to practice. We’re going to fine-tune everything, then go over there to Greenville and try to start the win streak back up.”

Vicksburg (10-7, 4-3) will need to continue its hot streak — it has won five of its last six games — and get some help to finish first. The Gators must beat Clinton and Warren Central on Thursday night, then hope Clinton loses to WC. That scenario would create a three-way tie with all the contenders at 6-3, and the tiebreaker is run differential. The Gators are well behind, but could catch up with a couple of lopsided victories and close outcomes in the other games this week.

To have any chance, however, the Gators must even out some inconsistent play. They scored 48 runs in a three-game stretch last week, then scored one in a key game against Clinton.