Warren Central was up, and then it was down.

It went up again, and then back down again.

And then it was out.

Nic Hogan and Ian Ladner both hit three-run home runs as Northwest Rankin rallied from deficits of four and two runs to beat Warren Central 10-7 Tuesday night in Game 3 of their second-round MHSAA Class 6A baseball playoff series at Viking Field.

Northwest Rankin (21-9) won for the 10th time in 11 games and advanced to face Tupelo in the quarterfinals. Warren Central’s season, so full of promise and potential, ended with a 21-8 record and a loss in its first playoff series.

“It sucks pretty bad, because we were good, man. We had a good group, and Northwest Rankin played great,” said Warren Central senior Brooks Boolos, who had an RBI single and scored two runs. “We didn’t pitch bad at all. Taft (Nesmith) and Booth (Buys) hit all their spots. We came out and played, bouncing back from the first game, and we played great today. That was just a bad one. They got the best of us. They earned it. They definitely earned it.”

Both teams entered the series with a mutual respect for each other that didn’t diminish over the course of three hard-fought games. Northwest Rankin won Game 1, but Warren Central bounced back to take Game 2 and jumped out to a 4-0 lead early in Game 3.

John Austin Burris had a two-out, two-run single in the first inning and Landon Stewart an RBI double in the second that spotted the Vikings their runs.

Northwest Rankin got a run back in the third on an RBI double by Ladner. Jackson Hailey hit a two-out grounder to third that resulted in an error, and then Hogan made the Vikings pay for keeping the inning alive.

Northwest Rankin’s big designated hitter, who narrowly missed a series-ending grand slam with the final swing of Game 2, got all of one this time. He belted a pitch over the center field fence for a three-run homer that tied Game 3 at 4-all.

Hogan finished the game 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

“That’s been our problem all year, is just getting guys in. He hit that ball and it ignited everything,” said Ladner, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a home run, four RBIs and three runs scored. “I don’t want to say it would have turned out different if he didn’t hit it, but there’s a good chance it would. I don’t want to say we were down in the dumps, but we were struggling. That home run just ignited everything.”

Ladner and Hailey hit back-to-back doubles in the fifth inning to give Northwest its first lead of the game, but Warren Central answered in its half.

An error and back-to-back RBI singles by Boolos and Conner Wilkinson put the Vikings back in front. Wilkinson scored on another error to make it 7-5.

Wilkinson singled twice, walked and scored two runs in the game. Stewart, who reached on the first error in the fifth inning, also scored two runs and was 2-for-3 with an RBI double.

“All I know is, I’m proud of them. They fought and fought. They could have folded after Game 1 and they didn’t. They kept fighting. After the other team tonight came back and responded, we came back and responded,” Warren Central coach Conner Douglas said. “It was like a heavyweight fight. We just didn’t get the last blow in.”

The last blow was, indeed, a heavyweight haymaker that put the Vikings down for the count.

With two outs in the top of the sixth and runners on second and third, Boolos threw two curveballs for strikes to Ladner. When he tried to sneak a third one across the plate, Ladner turned on it and crushed it. The ball sailed high over the left field fence and into the trees beyond it for a three-run homer that put the Cougars in front to stay.

“He had taken all my sidearm curveballs, and Douglas called a curveball again,” Boolos said. “I threw it to him and I thought it was going to hit him. He turned on it and it was a beautiful swing. He put it in the top of that tree over there.”

Northwest Rankin added another run in the sixth on an RBI double by Hogan, and one more in the seventh with an RBI single by Ty Riche’ that made it 10-7. At that point, Warren Central was all out of comebacks.

Reliever Wade Altobelli, who had gotten the Cougars out of their fifth-inning mess with minimal damage, retired the Vikings in order in the sixth and seventh innings. The final out was a one-hopper back to the mound that Altobelli snagged, chaperoned halfway to first base, and tossed to Ladner.

“He just had our number. We couldn’t get our timing. I know I didn’t have a great approach,” said Boolos, who popped out against Altobelli to end the sixth inning. “It seemed like we were a little off-balance when he came in. Props to him. He did a great job.”

If there was one consolation that the Vikings seemed to take from Tuesday’s loss, it was that it came against a respected opponent. Northwest Rankin reached the Class 6A semifinals last season and is now one of the favorites to win the North State championship — just like Warren Central would have been had it won this series.

“It does make it easier to take knowing we didn’t get beat by some garbage team. We played a really good, quality team,” Boolos said. “I’m sure they’ll win next week. They played really well. They might make a run. I just wish it was us.”

WARREN CENTRAL VS. NORTHWEST RANKIN

MHSAA Class 6A baseball playoffs

Game 1: Northwest Rankin 10, Warren Central 0

Game 2: Warren Central 3, Northwest Rankin 2

Game 3: Northwest Rankin 10, Warren Central 7

• Northwest Rankin wins series 2-1 and advances to the Class 6A quarterfinals vs. Tupelo