Warren Central’s quest for a state championship was over before it ever really got going.

The Lady Vikes committed six errors that led to six unearned runs, and hit a wall offensively after a fast start Friday. A rally in the seventh inning fell short, and their season came to an abrupt end with a 7-6 loss to Grenada in the Class 6A play-in round.

Grenada (9-8-1) swept the best-of-three series 2-0 and advanced to face Madison Central in the first round on Monday and Tuesday.

Warren Central (20-6) had its best record in nine years, but still has not won a playoff series since 2007.

“It’s hard, especially because you don’t expect it to end so quickly. Even last night after we lost, you felt like, ‘That’s fine. We’re going to be OK, we’ll do this tomorrow and win two games,’” Warren Central coach Dana McGivney said. “Then we start out the way we want to start out and all of a sudden decide we’re not going to do it any more.”

After Grenada won a 1-0 pitchers’ duel in Game 1 on Thursday, Game 2 — at least the early part of it — belonged to the offenses. The teams combined for 11 runs in the first 2 1/2 innings.

Olivia Burns doubled in a run and then scored on an error to put Grenada up 2-0 in the top of the first.

WC’s Katie Channell tied it up with a two-run single in the bottom of the inning, then Lawren Boolos singled in another run to give the Lady Vikes the lead. They padded it in the second inning with an inside-the-park home run by Brooke Patterson and an RBI single by Grace Franco to take a 5-2 lead.

A defensive meltdown in the third inning proved costly, for WC, however, It committed three errors that led to four runs as Grenada regained the lead.

Another bobbled grounder in the sixth led to a needed insurance run that put Grenada up 7-5.

Every Warren Central infielder except pitcher Darby Gain committed at least one error in the game.

“Luck was on our side today,” Grenada coach Leslie Lancaster said. “We were both equal on hitting.”

About the same time its fielders were playing hot potato with the softball, WC’s hitters went cold. Burns, who threw a complete-game shutout in Game 1, recovered from her shaky start Friday to retire nine batters in a row and 15 of 16.

The string was broken with a two-out walk to Megan Stewart in the bottom of the seventh that nearly sparked a miracle comeback by the Lady Vikes.

Franco was hit by a pitch in a wild at-bat. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Franco sliced a fly ball foul down the left field line. Grenada’s Macey McDaniel got a bead on it, but it popped out of her glove to keep the game alive.

With runners at first and second, Channell then delivered an RBI single to cut the deficit to 7-6 and put the winning run on base.

The magic stopped there, however. Boolos pounded a slow grounder into the dirt, third baseman Emily Bush scooped it up and made a clean throw to first, and the game — and season — was over for the Lady Vikes.

“We came out, were a lot more fired up and played better and were hitting the ball better, then all of a sudden we fell apart and couldn’t get it back on track,” McGivney said.

Despite the loss, the future still looks bright for Warren Central. Only three seniors — Franco, Lexi Burleigh and Skylar Blades — are graduating. Among the returners next season is Gain, who had a 13-4 record and averaged nearly a strikeout an inning this year.

“I think we have pretty good depth and we should continue to build on the season we had this year, and hopefully be even better next year,” McGivney said.