NATCHEZ – Warren Central coach Lucy Young changed her lineup slightly Tuesday night by putting Kari Lieberman at the leadoff spot.

It paid off in more ways than one.

Lieberman hit a single, double and triple to pace the Lady Vikes in a 6-2 Division 6-5A win over Natchez. The victory ensured the Lady Vikes the division championship and a home playoff series.

The Lady Vikes (3-0, 15-5) still must play Vicksburg on Thursday to round out the division schedule.

And, as head coach Lucy Young noted, it put the program two wins away from No. 400.

“I guess if you look at head-to-head, we’d still be first place,” Young said. “That’s if they come to play and they hit. We’re preparing for the state playoffs, and we’ve got several strong teams coming up.

“We’ve got a lot of goals in mind, but you’ve got to credit to Natchez. This is one of the most improved teams. They lost a lot from last year. From early in the year, they corrected the mistakes they were making. They’re a well-coached team.”

Things could have been a bit better for the Lady Bulldogs (3-8, 1-2) had they come up with a couple of key hits. The defense was improved, despite four errors, but they left runners on base every inning – including leaving them loaded in the second.

Natchez left 10 stranded for the game.

“That’s our problem – we just didn’t get the key hits when we needed it,” Williams said. “I think we had two or three people in scoring position a couple of times but didn’t get the key hits. We’ve been battling the hitting all year – hitting and defense – but we played a little bit better defensively than we normally do. We just didn’t hit.”

Warren Central’s bats were hot and cold after a four-run fourth inning for a 5-0 lead.

Mandy Fuller broke it open with a ball over Ke’Airra Jones’ head in right that wound up being a three-run homer driving in Katelyn Patton and Bridget Dillon.

Patton singled in a run after Mandy Bordelon reached on an error for the first run of the inning.

Warren Central had just one hit in its final three innings, but the Lady Vikes took advantage of an error in the seventh when Fatima Chase hit a fly ball to right center that fell in. With Chase at third and Shawn Johnson at first, Amanda Doyle flied out in the infield for the second out. Johnson tried to tag up from first, and the Lady Bulldogs tried unsuccessfully to throw her out, allowing Chase to score from third.

“We’re hitting too many fly balls,” Young said. “That’s one of our biggest things. And we’re leaving runners in scoring position. We’re putting people on base, but we’ve got to come up with the hits that are going to score runs.”