Warren Central went nearly two decades between trips to the MHSAA baseball semifinals. Now it’s becoming a habit.

Maddox Lynch and Trace Hood each hit a two-run home run, and Warren Central held on to beat Grenada 5-3 to complete a sweep of their second-round MHSAA Class 6A playoff series on Monday.

Warren Central (20-9) advanced to the Class 6A semifinals for the second year in a row, after not making it that far from 2006-23. It’ll play Saltillo or Neshoba Central for the North State championship in a best-of-three series.

The Vikings have won 17 of their last 18 games since mid-March and have reached the state semifinals in back-to-back years for the first time in school history.

“It’s huge. We flipped a switch somewhere. We were 2-7 and stayed the course. Trusted some things and trusted each other,” Warren Central coach Randy Broome said. “I don’t know that we’ve ever gone on a run like this and we sure never went to North State twice.”

Saltillo beat Neshoba Central 2-0 in Game 1 of their rain-delayed series on Monday. Game 2 is Tuesday night, and if Game 3 is needed it will be Wednesday at Saltillo.

Because of the delay in that series and heavy rain forecast throughout this week, Broome said the semifinal series likely will not begin until next Monday, May 12, instead of this Friday as originally scheduled.

“All four coaches got together before this and we talked and got permission from the MHSAA, because of pitching and everything else,” Broome said. “Nothing is set in stone yet, but there’s about a 98 percent chance we’ll play Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday next week.”

The Vikings beat Grenada 8-2 in Game 1 on Saturday, then went on the road and got rolling early in Game 2 on Monday.

Hayes Loper was hit by the first pitch of the game, and two batters later Lynch put a ball over the right field fence for a 2-0 lead.

In the third inning, Lynch reached on an error and Hood followed with his second home run of the season — the last was on Feb. 15, in the third game of the season — to make it 4-0.

The Vikings’ offense stalled out a bit after that, until they put together a two-out rally in the seventh inning. Lynch doubled and then scored on Hood’s single for a needed insurance run. Grenada had scored three times in the fifth inning to pull to within a run. Drew Klinck hit a two-run single and scored on a sacrifice fly for the Chargers (17-12).

Hood finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Lynch was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Together, they had five of Warren Central’s six hits.

“The insurance run in the seventh was the dagger. They had 9-1-2 coming up in the bottom half, so that fifth run was big,” Broome said.

Lynch was also sharp on the mound. He pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on three hits and one walk, while striking out three batters. He was pulled after giving up a one-out walk in the sixth inning and the bullpen took it the rest of the way.

Justin Greer finished the sixth inning and Caden Cole struck out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect seventh to close out the game and the series.

“We were trying to hold to Cole to bring him in to close it. We had the match-up with the lefty with Greer to get us out of the inning and he did,” Broome said. “That’s part of the game people don’t always get, is the chess match and what you’re trying to do and them understanding what we’re trying to do. All the calls we made, the guys went out there and made us look like superstars.”