For all of its success this season, there were still some questions about how good Warren Central really is, and whether it can hang with some of the true juggernauts in Class 6A.

It answered some of them on Friday night.

Brooks Boolos pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, and the Vikings overcame a shaky start to beat Northwest Rankin 4-3.

It was the Vikings’ first win over Northwest Rankin since 2011 — they had lost five in a row to the Cougars — and served notice that the Division 4-6A champions will be a factor when the Class 6A playoffs start next week.

Northwest Rankin (20-2), the Division 3-6A champion, lost for just the second time this season. Both losses have been by one run.

“It feels great coming back from the loss to Greenville (on Wednesday). We really needed that,” said Boolos, who also knocked in the go-ahead runs with a single in the third inning. “It felt great because Northwest Rankin’s a really good team and we think we can run up there with the big dogs this year. We definitely are a different team, and I think that’s what it showed everyone — and us.”

Northwest Rankin batted around and scored three runs in the top of the first inning, but left the bases loaded. The missed opportunity turned into a theme as the game went along.

Warren Central ace Layne Tedder had a rough night, allowing seven walks and four hits in 4 2/3 innings of work. He threw 95 pitches, yet consistently worked out of whatever trouble he found himself in after the first inning.

Northwest left the bases loaded again in the third inning, and a runner at second in the fourth.

Warren Central got back into the game in the bottom of the second inning, when Tyler McRight singled in one run and another came in on an errant throw to the plate. Then, in the third inning, the Vikings scaled back their game to get the lead for good.

Tedder and Marcus Ragan led off with back-to-back bunt singles, then each moved up a base on Connor Wilkinson’s sacrifice bunt. Boolos singled to right field to bring both runners in, and the Vikings had a 4-3 lead they never relinquished.

“We got a baserunner on, and then we were going to play small ball and try to get a few runs. The guys that we bunted are capable of bunting for hits, and that’s what we did,” Warren Central coach Conner Douglas said. “We moved runners over for Brooks to drive in, and he did what he was supposed to do.”

The second half of the game was a duel of ace relievers. Northwest’s Dylan Henderson retired eight of the nine batters he faced, while Boolos hit two batters but didn’t give up a hit or a walk in his stint.

Boolos struck out four batters, including Wade Altobelli on a breaking ball in the dirt for the final out of the game. The Vikings celebrated briefly on the first base line, then headed to right field for a postgame meeting — happy, but businesslike.

“I like the way the guys came out. They rebounded well. They flushed that last game and just beat the No. 3 team in the state,” Douglas said. “It’s a huge confidence booster going into the playoffs, because they’re a contender-type team. That’s a big mental thing for our team going into the playoffs because you know that’s the type of team you’re going to have to beat to make the run you want to make.”