Lady Vikes take care of VHS

Published 8:42 am Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Some observers might say it was Vicksburg High’s errors that turned the tide Monday night. Others might say Warren Central hit a few balls that led to them.

No matter what side of the fence they were on, there was no argument about which team is better this season.

Warren Central took advantage of three errors — two of which came with two outs — to score eight runs in the fourth inning, and went on to beat crosstown rival Vicksburg 10-0.

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Ashley Coley went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored for Warren Central, Katelyn Morson drove in two runs with a single and a sacrifice fly, and Sarah Kate Smith tripled and scored two runs.

“If you hit the ball hard, sometimes it makes it a little harder for the defense. They have to make plays when you hit the ball hard. That’s the same thing we’ve been preaching all year, is just hit the ball hard,” Warren Central coach Dana McGivney said. “The middle and bottom of our lineup has been hitting the ball well. So really, one through 10, you don’t know which one is going to come in and have the hit.”

Warren Central (14-2, 5-0 Region 3-5A/6A) beat Vicksburg (6-7, 1-4) for the second time in six days and outscored the Missy Gators 21-3 in the season series. The two losses helped eliminate Vicksburg from playoff contention. VHS will travel to face Greenville today.

“I’m proud of the girls. We can still finish off the season with wins, and that’s what we need to do. We need to go out there and have fun the rest of the season and build our confidence level back up,” Vicksburg coach Michelle Fisackerly said. “We’re losing seven or eight players and we might as well make the best of what we’ve got. We don’t need to hang our heads. We need to go out there and have fun the next three games.”

Warren Central, on the other hand, has all but wrapped up the region championship with one game to go. It’ll host Clinton in a doubleheader today at 5 p.m., with only the first game counting toward the region standings. Clinton needs to win by at least 12 runs to have any chance at the championship.

The one-sided run differential is evidence of the Lady Vikes’ dominance this season. Against Vicksburg, they scored twice in the second inning before blowing it open in the fourth. Smith legged out a triple, then scored on Coley’s RBI single for the first run, and Coley eventually scored on Morson’s RBI single to make it 2-0.

In the fourth inning, Coley got things rolling with a base hit. A walk and an error loaded the bases before Morson delivered a sacrifice fly. Another walk followed, then Cocoa Fultz hit a line drive to deep right field that was dropped, allowing two runs to score. A bases-loaded walk and a third error brought it to 9-0, and Coley drove in another run with a single to push it to 10-0.

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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