From staff reports

 

St. Aloysius shook off its doldrums for the first time in a while, and the Vicksburg Gators for the second day in a row, to head into the postseason with a little bit of momentum.

George Tzotzolas homered during a seven-run second inning, Lane Hynum went 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles and three RBIs, and the Flashes blasted Vicksburg 13-3 Tuesday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.

St. Al (13-8) beat the Class 5A Gators for the second straight night, and won for the eighth time in 10 games. Tuesday’s win, however, was a more complete effort than the team showed in Monday’s 8-6 win over VHS and an 11-0 loss to Northwest Rankin.

The Flashes had 10 hits — Hynum and Tzotzolas had two apiece — and seldom-used pitcher Seth Carpenter threw five solid innings to get the win.

St. Al will now have eight days off before beginning the Class 1A playoffs against either Stringer or Ethel on May.

“It was a lot better. We just approached the game a lot better,” St. Al coach Derrik Boland said. “It was a good game to get over our little hump we were having. You hope that’ll help us going into this week.”

For Vicksburg (11-15), the mission was simply to get some reps, lick some wounds, and find some success heading into Thursday’s Class 5A playoff opener against Saltillo.

Only about half of the Gators’ lineup consisted of regular starters. Three of the four pitchers it used were freshmen, and the other was an eighth-grader.

The makeshift pitching staff was needed after six pitchers were used in Monday’s doubleheader with Northwest Rankin and St. Al. All of them were on pitch counts with the playoffs two days away.

Injuries to starting infielders Jekori Reed and Michael Rohrer suffered Monday pressed some more reserves into service.

Although Vicksburg coach Ryan Grey didn’t expect his young hurlers to shut down a strong St. Al lineup, he said he was still a bit disappointed in the outcome.

Judah Gutierrez, Daniel Lewis, Gage Ederington and Latonio Brown combined to walk nine batters and hit two others in the five-inning, mercy-rule shortened game.

Ten of St. Al’s 13 runs were earned.

“I expected to give up some runs, but not walk or bean 11. You can’t win any game when you aren’t filling the zone up,” Grey said. “I expected the freshmen to be a little nervous, but we’ve still got to pitch it. But they got some valuable experience on the hill tonight.”

Offensively for the Gators, Taylor Hollowell doubled twice and went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Lee Middleton had two hits, and Josh Sterling had an RBI single.

All of Vicksburg’s runs came in the third inning, after St. Al had sprinted out to a 9-0 lead.

“We didn’t hit it too terrible. We had six hits and hit a couple more balls at them that they made good plays on,” Grey said. “Also got a couple guys some multiple at-bats that haven’t had the opportunity to swing much this year.”

 

WC 7, Richland 4

Cameron Upton had two hits, Carlisle Koestler drove in two runs, and Warren Central (21-6) went into the playoffs with its fourth win in five games.

The Vikings will open the playoffs Thursday night at home, at 6 p.m. against Grenada.