Warren Central’s successes during the first half of the high school softball season have shown flashes of what it might be capable of. Its struggles might be closer to reality for a young team.

Heading into the second half of the season and the start of region play this week, the Lady Vikes would happily settle for some sort of equilibrium and confidence.

Warren Central (4-8) has scored 80 runs in its four victories this season, and a total of 19 in its eight losses. Seven fielding errors doomed the Lady Vikes in their latest defeat, 8-5 Monday night against Wesson.

“It’s just a matter of being comfortable and not being nervous. We’re playing a lot of younger people and people who haven’t played, but that’s not an excuse by any stretch of the imagination,” coach Dana McGivney said. “Sometimes we feel comfortable and sometimes we don’t. Why that is, I can’t tell you. We’ve got to be comfortable every day. Here in the past couple of weeks I think we’ve come together a little bit better as far as hitting the ball. We might not be winning ballgames yet, but we are hitting the ball.”

Warren Central plays its Region 4-6A opener Thursday at 6:15 p.m., at home against Clinton.
The Lady Vikes had seven hits and scored all of their runs in the first three innings against Wesson. Kelsey Lockridge went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored, Annalyn Nevels hit an RBI triple and Makayla Jackson had two hits.

They’ve scored at least five runs in three of their last four games, including an 18-run outburst Saturday against Brookhaven. In their other three wins they’ve scored 19, 18 and 25 runs.

The big offensive games show what the Lady Vikes are capable of, McGivney said. The challenge is to do it consistently. After taking a 5-3 lead at the end of the third inning against Wesson, they did not score again.

“We need to continue to do it every inning, and not just one or two innings. We need to play solid offensively and defensively the entire game,” McGivney said. “We just have some kids that need to feel comfortable and confident. Hopefully they’ll get there sooner rather than later and we’ll start seeing some more wins.”

Defense, more than hitting, was also a problem on Monday. Two errors keyed a four-run rally for Wesson in the seventh inning that led to its victory. The Lady Cobras scored three unearned runs in the game.

“We’ve been working hard, but we just haven’t been able to finish. I think slowly but surely things will come together and we’ll continue to get better. We’ve just got to finish it,” McGivney said. “We were ahead going into the seventh, but we made several errors earlier that cost us several runs. If we cut down on those, then it’s bigger than a one-run lead which makes it a little easier.”