[3/22/03]For the first time in a long time, the Vicksburg Gators got to savor a victory over their archrivals a little early.

James Jackson went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, and also shut down Warren Central for six innings as Vicksburg cruised to a 13-1 win at Viking Field on Friday night.

Jackson mixed a 90 mph fastball with a solid breaking ball and allowed only two hits, one walk, and one unearned run while striking out nine.

“I haven’t heard a gun reading, but all year long when I’ve seen him throw he didn’t have a breaking ball. Tonight he did.

“You run that sucker up there 88 or 90 with a breaking ball, I don’t care if you’re playing the Yankees,” WC coach Randy Broome said.

Matt Middleton, Josh McBride and Paul Gorney backed Jackson with two hits each, and Justin Boler was 3-for-4 with three RBIs for Vicksburg. Middleton also drove in two runs, and McBride, Gorney, and Justin Henry had one RBI apiece.

In all, the Gators collected 11 hits off of five Viking pitchers.

Vicksburg jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first and never looked back.

Two errors helped the rally, but the Gators also rocked WC starter Jeremy Ferguson for four hits, three of them with two outs.

Gorney’s RBI single scored McBride with the first run of the game, and the 300-pound Gator first baseman scored from first on a double by Jackson. Gorney was nearly out at the plate, but WC catcher John Rice Pettway dropped a relay throw. Boler followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.

The error that allowed Gorney to score was one of several mistakes in the early innings that hurt the Vikings. Another botched relay throw in the third inning led to an unearned run, and WC had a runner thrown out trying to steal second to end the first inning. Another WC runner was picked off of first by VHS catcher Rob Quimby in the fourth.

Vicksburg broke the game open with a five-run rally in the fifth. The first five Gator batters reached base, including Jackson on a two-run single. Middleton drove in two more runs with a two-out hit, and Henry drew a bases-loaded walk to cap the inning.

“We went into kind of a lackadaisical stage there. It was 4-0 for a while, and we brought them in that inning and said we’ve got to get some runs. Teams have shown they can come back several times this year. I thought we did a good job of putting runs on the board when we needed it,” Vicksburg coach Jamie Creel said.

With a 9-0 cushion and Jackson throwing well, the final margin of victory was the only thing in doubt for the Gators at that point.

The Vikings finally touched Jackson for an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth, but Vicksburg tacked on four more runs in the top of the seventh to put an exclamation point on the win.

“We haven’t even beaten them twice in the same year since I’ve been here. We played well tonight, and we deserved it. We hit the ball well, played good defense, and pitched the ball well,” Creel said.