Extra-inning games continued to be unkind to Warren Central’s baseball team.

Chase Peeples scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning, and MHSAA Class 7A power Northwest Rankin beat Warren Central 2-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Warren Central (7-10) fell to 1-3 in extra-inning games this season. It has also had two walk-off losses in seven-inning games.

The Vikings’ only run came in the fifth inning, on a solo home run by Connor Watkins that tied the score at 1. The rest of the game was a pitchers’ duel.

WC’s Maddox Lynch and Brooks Willoughby combined to allow two runs, seven hits and only one walk in nine innings plus. Willoughby had seven strikeouts in five innings.

Northwest Rankin (15-6) pitchers Jackson Meehan, Nash Sturdivant and Brady Saxton combined for nine strikeouts in 10 innings. They allowed a total of five hits and four walks.

Watkins and Ryan Nelson had two hits each for Warren Central. Nelson hit a double and a single.

Saxton also drove in Northwest Rankin’s first run with a ground out in the first inning. The second came in the 10th as three consecutive singles loaded the bases and Peeples scored on the wild pitch.

Warren Central will play again Tuesday at 7 p.m., on the road against Region 2-6A rival Ridgeland.

Riverside 6, St. Aloysius 4
Eight of Riverside’s nine starters had a hit, and the Bulldogs took the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to beat St. Aloysius (11-9) on Saturday.

Walt Andrews and Robert Lee hit back-to-back RBI doubles in the top of the fourth to help pull St. Al even at 4-4. Riverside regained the lead in the bottom half with an RBI ground out from Abraham Ramirez and an RBI single by Alex Chamblee, and then neither team did much offensively after that.

St. Al had several base runners, but none got past second base. St. Al pitcher Max Hargrave settled down after some early shakiness to only allow one hit in the last two innings.

Hargrave pitched six innings. He allowed eight hits, but only one walk and had three strikeouts.
Andrews, Clark Hobson and Pierson Smith each had two hits and scored a run for the Flashes. Andrews had two RBIs.

St. Al will host Cathedral Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Bazinsky Field in the first of a three-game MAIS District 4-5A series next week. The teams will play a doubleheader Friday in Natchez, starting at 4 p.m.

Vicksburg 18, Columbus 12
Tyler Carter hit a grand slam and finished 3-for-4 with a home run, triple, six RBIs and three runs scored to lead Vicksburg High (7-11, 4-1 MHSAA Region 2-6A) past Columbus on Friday.

Carter’s home run helped stake the Gators to a 5-0 lead in the first inning, but Columbus scored seven in the second to go ahead.

In the third inning, the Gators scored eight runs to take the lead for good. Patrick Gray, Jr. and Mincer Minor both hit RBI sinbgles.

Carter drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, and hit an RBI triple in the seventh.

😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/qZ0h6ugFYE

— Tyler Carter2️⃣4️⃣ ✞ (@Iamtylercarter) April 6, 2024

Minor finished the game 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Kealon Bass was 2-for-3 and scored three runs, Chris Green had two hits and scored twice, and Gray was 2-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored.

Kaleb Doss, Seven West and Braylon Green also scored two runs apiece.

Vicksburg won its fourth game in a row, with three of those coming against Region 2-6A opponents. It’ll hit a tough part of the schedule down the stretch, however, with four league games against Neshoba Central and Warren Central over the last two weeks of the regular season.

The Gators will host Neshoba Central Tuesday, and then go on the road to face the Rockets on Friday. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.