CLINTON — Warren Central’s perfect season ended in a flash.

Clinton scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the lead, then got a 9-6 win when lightning brought an early end to the game in the bottom of the fifth.

The teams waited out a 20-minute delay before a large flash of lightning lit up the sky and sent players, coaches and fans scurrying to the parking lot.

The game had become official moments before the delay, and Clinton (5-1, 1-0 Division 4-6A) was declared the winner. It snapped Warren Central’s 10-game winning streak to start the season, and also gave Clinton a leg up in the division race. The teams play again April 15 in Vicksburg.

“It’s disappointing. It’s been a sloppy game, but we kept fighting and kept coming back, and I hate for it to end like this,” WC coach Dana McGivney said as she hurriedly packed up equipment in the dugout. “You want to get your kids a chance to play just to see what the outcome would be as opposed to the weather ending the game. But there’s nothing you can do sometimes.”

Warren Central committed five errors in the game. Three came in the second inning, when Clinton scored three runs. Two of them scored on a triple by Toni Peterson.

WC tied it in the third inning on an RBI single by Katie Channell and an RBI double by Jordan Lee. Grace Franco also hit a solo home run — the first of the senior’s career — in the second inning.

“I couldn’t really believe it,” Franco said of her home run, which was aided over the fence by a stiff breeze blowing out toward left center. “They told me not to swing for the fences, so I just swung and it went out.”

Bailey Winscott put Clinton back in front with a two-run single in the fourth inning. Tagen Remmel had another two-run single later on to put the Lady Arrows ahead 9-3.

On a normal night, the lead might not have stood up. Warren Central chopped its deficit in half as Lawren Boolos and Darby Gain keyed a three-run rally in the fifth inning with an RBI single each.

The Lady Vikes, though, never got a chance to keep their momentum going. Gain threw one pitch in the bottom of the fifth before lightning shot across the sky beyond the left field fence.

The home plate umpire stopped the game immediately. More lightning flashes, but little rain, followed as fans, coaches and umpires checked weather radar on their smartphones.

Finally, 20 minutes after the initial flash, the larger bolt left no doubt that the game would be called. McGivney, who was chatting with Clinton coach Mike Chambliss at home plate, sprinted to the first base dugout. As she ran, she turned toward Chambliss and crossed her arms in an “X” — the umpires’ sign for a game’s end.

 

Bogue Chitto 12,

St. Aloysius 2

Bogue Chitto scored all of its runs in the first three innings, and cruised to a a run-rule shortened win over St. Aloysius (6-7, 0-1 Division 7-1A).

Jordan McDonald had a pair of singles and drove in both runs for St. Al, and Perry Gillis had a double.

Terrah Nelson had three RBIs and three runs scored for Bogue Chitto (9-4, 1-0) and Alexis Givens was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.

St. Al will try to even its division record when it hosts Mount Olive Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Bazinsky Park.