FLOWOOD — The slimmest of margins separated Warren Central and Northwest Rankin on Thursday night.

A fraction of an inch on the bat, which turned a routine grounder into a slow bouncer. A split-second on the throw, and a half-step at first base.

It all went in Northwest Rankin’s favor.

Alex Shermer legged out a two-out infield single in the bottom of the sixth inning to bring in the go-ahead run, then scored on a double by Jordan Stark, and the Cougars beat Warren Central 4-2 in Game 1 of a second-round Class 6A playoff series.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is tonight at 7 at Warren Central, and Game 3 is Saturday afternoon at Northwest Rankin. Despite the tough loss in Game 1, the Vikings (17-14) remained confident they could rally back to win the last two and upset the favorite in the North half of the bracket.

“We went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the state. I’ve got to give it to them, they played ball and fought back with us. It was Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali. We were in there. We came up short,” WC catcher Hunter Austin said. “I feel like we should have won that game, but we’ve got them tomorrow. I really think we do a little bit better with our backs against the wall.”

Pitching dominated Game 1. Northwest Rankin starter Wesley Wilkinson didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, and struck out nine batters in five-plus innings. Warren Central’s Cody Waddell was even better, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Waddell, whose fastball normally tops out around 87 mph, hit 90 on the scoreboard radar gun in the first inning.

“We’ve been talking about him hitting 90, because he’s been close before. All the guys were asking, ‘does your hand hurt?’” Austin said with a laugh. “He was slinging it. He had all kinds of movement on the ball. It was great.”

The teams combined for five errors, and the sloppy play allowed each squad to score twice without getting a hit. A throwing error by Waddell in the bottom of the fourth brought in two runs for Northwest Rankin (26-3), then a dropped ball on a rundown in the top of the fifth let WC tie it at 2.

In the sixth, Northwest Rankin finally broke through against Waddell at the perfect time.

Daniel Sweet led off with a walk, went to second on a passed ball and was bunted to third. Following a strikeout, Shermer stepped in and fell behind in the count. He got just enough of a pitch to chop it toward third. WC’s Mason Jarabica, playing deep, charged onto the infield grass and made a strong throw, but Shermer beat it by a half-step.

It was Northwest Rankin’s first hit of the game but, more importantly, Sweet scored to give the Cougars a 3-2 lead. Stark followed with his RBI double to the gap in left-center to score Shermer from first and make it 4-2.

“That was a smash,” Shermer laughed. “It kind of went in slow motion. He had been throwing good all night and then, I just put the bat on the ball and ran.”

Warren Central was down, but not out, after the one-two punch to the gut in the sixth inning.

Travis Barnett singled in the top of the seventh, and Waddell doubled just inside the third base bag to put runners at second and third with one out.

Reliever Matthew Webb struck out Brandon Gates for the second out, and gave way to Reid Humphreys. Humphreys got Austin to hit an easy grounder to second for the final out.

“We had an opportunity to win there at the end and we didn’t. That’s all you can ask for,” WC coach Josh Abraham said. “The kids played as hard as they could and did everything they could to win, and that’s all I ask of them.”