PEARL — The first week of Warren Central’s baseball season was a rollercoaster, and it ended on a decided downturn.

The Vikings only managed to get five hits, fell behind by four runs in the first two innings, and lost 6-1 to Northridge (Ala.) in their final game at the Mid-Mississippi Classic on Saturday.

Warren Central finished the first week of the season with a 3-3 record that including a two-game winning streak, a two-game losing streak, and two losses in which it scored a total of two runs.

“A lot of it is we’re very young. We lost a lot of starters since last year. Not making excuses, we’re just young and when you have a young team you have ups and downs,” Warren Central coach Conner Douglas said. “We’re going to get better. We’re going to hit the ground running Monday and work on some things and get some kinks knocked out. That’s the good thing about baseball — it’s a long year.”

Saturday’s loss was ugly from the start.

After the Vikings were retired in order in the top of the first inning, Evan London doubled in a run and then scored on a single by Batson Brumfield to give Northridge a 2-0 lead in the bottom half. London added an RBI single in the second inning as Northridge (2-2) scored twice more to make it 4-0.

WC got on the board with an RBI single from Matthew Newcomb in the fourth inning. It had the bases loaded with one out, but failed to score more than the one run.

London hit another RBI single in the fifth inning and Brumfield scored on a wild pitch in the sixth to push Northridge’s lead to 6-1.

London finished the game 3-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored. Will Butler scored two runs and drove in another. John David Sumner started on the mound and allowed one run in six innings.
For Warren Central, Caleb Sterling gave up five runs, three earned, in 3 2/3 innings and took the loss.

“Terrible,” Douglas said, bluntly, in assessing his team’s performance. “You’ve got to call a spade a spade. We didn’t compete. We faced a below-average pitcher and apparently we couldn’t make adjustments at the plate. We’ve been very undisciplined. We’ve got to be better. It’s going to be a long year if we can’t make those adjustments.”

Franklin County 14, Vicksburg 8

Franklin County scored six runs in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth to surge past Vicksburg High Saturday.

Vicksburg had jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second inning, and still led 8-4 heading to the bottom of the fifth.

DeMartre Collins went 4-for-5 with a triple, double, five RBIs and two runs scored for Franklin County (3-1).

Chandler Luke had a three-run double during Vicksburg’s six-run rally in the second inning. Cory Russell had two hits and scored two runs.