Warren Central is cuckoo for Cocoa Fultz.

The sophomore shortstop hit the first pitch of Tuesday’s game against Vicksburg over the left-center field wall for a home run. She delivered a bases-clearing triple in the seventh to finally put the game away. In between, she turned in a half-dozen defensive gems that wowed the crowd, frustrated the Missy Gators, and sparked Warren Central to an 11-3 win over its archrival.

“I’ve been waiting on this game for the longest, and I was ready to play. So I came out playing hard,” said Fultz, who finished the game 3-for-4 with the homer, triple, a single, four RBIs and two runs scored. “I try to come out and play hard every game, but I really want to play hard against them. It feels great, and lets me know not to stop right here. Keep going.”

Fultz’s home run set the tone for the Lady Vikes (12-1, 3-0 Region 3-5A/6A). Their first five batters reached base and scored, capped off by a two-run home run by Megan Stewart. They didn’t score again until the top of the seventh inning, when an error and two walks loaded the bases for Fultz. She lifted a fly ball into the corner in right field and wound up on third with a triple that made it 8-0.

Fultz scored on a single by Kasy Cortezie. Brooke Patterson also had an RBI single in the inning and Sarah Kate Smith a sacrifice fly.

When she wasn’t driving in runs, Fultz was preventing them. She handled five chances in the field, including a leaping snare of a line drive off the bat of Shelby Muirhead in the third inning.

“It’s her first year to play shortstop, and she’s done a really good job fielding the position, learning the position, and every day getting better,” Warren Central coach Dana McGivney said. “Any time you have good defensive play it helps when you have those offensive lulls like we did.”

Fultz was only part of a strong overall defensive effort, however. The Lady Vikes committed four errors but threw out two baserunners by backing up overthrows to the infield and effortlessly tracked down several line drives to the gap. Vicksburg didn’t score until the bottom of the seventh inning.

“That’s what a good defense does, because we tracked a lot of theirs down, too,” Vicksburg coach Michelle Fisackerly said. “We had a couple that we misplayed, but the only thing we didn’t track down was their home runs. We’ve just got to string stuff together, and we didn’t do that.”

Fultz’s performance also overshadowed one by Vicksburg shortstop Mya’h Wright that was just as impressive.

Wright handled seven chances in the field without an error — including a nifty double play on which she fielded a grounder up the middle, stepped on second as she crossed the bag, then threw to first — and drove in all of the Missy Gators’ runs with a three-run homer.

Wright also had two singles to finish 3-for-4.

“I just think they hit the ball better than we did. We had a couple of errors that they took advantage of and scored on. But our defense was awesome until that last inning,” Vicksburg coach Michelle Fisackerly said. “We had a quite a few really good plays. I can’t complain about that.”