It wasn’t much of a step. More like a giant leap.

Warren Central closed in on the Division 4-6A championship in high style at Lucy Young Field on Tuesday.

The Lady Vikes thrashed archrival Vicksburg 9-0 to largely lock up the division title. For Vicksburg to earn the crown, it needs to beat Warren Central by 10 runs in the series finale, which has yet to be rescheduled. A date next Tuesday would require schedule adjustments for both teams.

“It’s always good to play and it’s such a big rivalry,” WC coach Dana McGivney said. “I’m proud of our girls for playing so hard and I’m proud of Darby, who pitched a great game. We executed offensively when we needed to.”

The key for the Lady Vikes (6-10, 3-0) was the work of pitcher Darby Gain, who threw a complete-game, one-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts and two walks.

“The rivalry was rushing my adrenaline, but I was ready to pitch and throw strikes,” Gain said. “The adrenaline of the rivalry can help, but we have to ramp down our emotions and keep playing with good attitudes.”

Gain got a big boost in the bottom of the first, as the Lady Vikes opened the scoring on a two-error sequence, two of nine Vicksburg errors in the game. Karley Hinson hit a seeing-eye pop-up that just kissed the chalk in shallow left for a double that drove in two runs. Lawren Boolos hit a deep flyout to center to drive in Hinson and give WC a 4-0 advantage.

Vicksburg (7-9, 1-1) got runners in scoring position several times, but could not convert thanks to some baserunning gaffes and an inability to mount a rally against Gain.

“We made too many errors on defense and we weren’t able to put the ball in play,” Vicksburg coach Amanda Yocum said. “Their pitcher and catcher had a very good game and their pitcher did a great job of keeping us off-balance.”

WC had only two hits, but took advantage of every Vicksburg miscue. The Lady Vikes completed their scoring off nine costly Vicksburg errors with three runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth.

Faith Thomas took the loss for Vicksburg, striking out six and allowing only two hits. She allowed nine runs, but only two were earned.

Bogue Chitto 15, St. Aloysius 2

The visiting Lady Bobcats scored five runs in the fourth and sixth innings to beat St. Al Tuesday at Bazinsky Park.

St. Al (4-10, 0-4 Division 7-1A) trailed 9-0 before scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Bogue Chitto came back to score once in the fifth and sealed the game with a five-run sixth. Freshman pitcher Avery Parman took the loss for St. Al. Haley Heggins and Allie Willis had a hit apiece.