Warren Central packed a month’s worth of mistakes into one night and paid the price.

The Vikings’ pitchers walked nine batters and hit three, and five of those dozen free passes led directly to runs as Saltillo beat Warren Central 6-4 in Game 1 of their MHSAA Class 6A baseball semifinal series on Monday.

“Twelve freebies with seven hits, that’s 19 guys on the bag. We had our chances all night. Tip your hat to their arms, they got out of some jams. We had our shots even though they won the freebie war drastically,” Warren Central coach Randy Broome said. “We talked about it all year, the deeper you go the less freebies you can give up and we gave up 12 of them.”

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Saltillo. Warren Central (20-10) needs to win it, and then again in Game 3 Friday at 7 p.m. on its home field, to earn a return trip to Trustmark Park for the Class 6A championship series vs. George County or Pearl River Central.

George County beat Pearl River Central 4-2 in Game 1 of the South State championship series on Monday, with Game 2 set for Tuesday night.

Saltillo (23-5) also won Game 1 of a second-round series against Warren Central in 2024. The Vikings rallied to win the next two. With that history, and some more recent success to fall back on, Broome felt confident heading north on Wednesday.

The Game 1 loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Vikings, and was only their second loss in the past 19 games. They hadn’t lost since a 9-4 setback against Northwest Rankin on April 5.

“It’s doable,” Broome said. “And earlier this year we had an eight-game winning streak and Northwest Rankin beat us here, and then we rattled off nine in a row. So let’s rattle off four.”

To do that, the Vikings will need to tighten up after an uncharacteristically sloppy performance in Game 1.

Starting pitcher Nathaniel Moore, who hadn’t allowed more than two runs in any of his last five starts, gave up three in only 2 1/3 innings. He walked four batters, hit three others, and two of those came in to score.

Relievers Justin Greer and Tristan Jamison fared no better as they combined to walk four batters. A throwing error on a stolen base allowed a run to score in the fourth inning, and Levin Darsey followed with an RBI single to put Saltillo ahead 5-1.

Warren Central generated plenty of scoring chances, but couldn’t get the clutch hit it needed to cash in on most of them. It left nine runners on base, including seven in scoring position.

An unearned run in the fourth inning and a two-run single by Jamison in the fifth pulled the Vikings back to within 5-4. They had another great chance in the sixth with the bases loaded and the middle of their order up, but a strikeout and a double play ended the threat.

Saltillo scored its final run on a bases-loaded walk to Cooper Burleson in the top of the sixth inning.

Broome, trying to find a silver lining, said it was good to see his team finding a way to stay in a game that could have easily been a blowout. Saltillo also left eight runners on base, hit into an inning-ending double play and had a runner thrown out stealing second to end another inning.

“The positive thing about the 12 freebies and seven hits is we’re down two and got a shot. At the end of the day we’re still clawing and fighting. That’s not supposed to be a close ballgame,” Broome said.

Now, he added, they just need to get back to playing the way they had been for the previous month instead of on Monday night.

“Hopefully that’s out of the way now. Hopefully we learned a lesson,” Broome said. “You have two choices — hang your head and go up there and get beat tomorrow; or show up and fight and see what happens.”

WARREN CENTRAL VS. SALTILLO
MHSAA Class 6A semifinals
Best-of-3; x-if necessary
Game 1 – Saltillo 6, Warren Central 4
May 14 – Warren Central at Saltillo, 7 p.m.
x-May 16 – Saltillo at Warren Central, 7 p.m.
• Admission: $11.50; tickets must be purchased online through GoFan.co