Saltillo did a lot of stealing Thursday afternoon at Bazinsky Field.

Not a victory, though. That, the Tigers earned.

Hunter Harlow went 3-for-5 with a home run, two RBIs and three runs scored, while Tory Gifford and Logan Neisler drove in two runs apiece to lead Saltillo to a 10-3 rout of Vicksburg High in Game 1 of a Class 5A play-in round series.

Game 2 is today at Saltillo at 4 p.m. Vicksburg (11-16) needs to win to keep its season alive and force Game 3 Saturday afternoon back at Bazinsky Field.

“It’s win or go home,” Vicksburg coach Ryan Grey said. “We’re down. They’ve got the upper hand on us right now. But it’s still a series. We go up there tomorrow, win, and give ourselves a chance.”

Saltillo (14-14) stole nine bases in Game 1. Six of those were by A.J. Rye, Harlow and Connor Wade, the Nos. 1 through 3 hitters in the order.

Harlow and Gifford each stole a base in the first inning and went on to score as Saltillo jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Gators were playing catch-up the rest of the way, and never could.

“When we can do that, we’re pretty good. When we’re not able to do that, we struggle,” Saltillo coach Johnny Bolen said. “We noticed after the first inning that he wasn’t throwing over there (to first) and we were taking advantage of it.”

Vicksburg only had two hits against Saltillo’s Xan Reese. The right-hander walked three batters and struck out five.

The Gators still had several chances to stay in the game thanks to the walks and the five errors the Tigers committed. Each time, their opportunities were wasted.

The Gators scored single runs in each of the first two innings, but also left three runners in scoring position. A double play ended the fourth, when the deficit was still a manageable 5-2.

And, in the seventh, after Saltillo had blown it open, Josh Daffron lined into a game-ending double play.

Daffron had one of Vicksburg’s two hits, a single in the first inning. The other was an RBI single by John Plummer in the second. Reese retired 11 of 13 batters from the third through sixth innings.

“The pitcher wasn’t overpowering. He located well. He stayed down the whole night and he was sneaky fast,” Grey said. “He hid the ball real well and got in on us early in the game and got us behind in some counts, then we had to fight off some balls and we just didn’t do it. You’ve got to tip your hat to him.”

Saltillo had no such problems with its hitting. It pounded VHS starter Tyler Smith for eight runs on 12 hits.

Reliever Will Martin worked out of a jam in the sixth, then gave up a long two-run homer to Harlow in the seventh that put an exclamation point on Saltillo’s win.

“You’ve got two now to win one, so you feel like you’re in pretty good shape,” Bolen said. “Of course, you never know what tomorrow’s going to bring in this game.”