[03/15/02]OUACHITA, La. The good news for Warren Central was that it scored six runs in the last inning.

The bad news: Neville had already scored 19.

Shortstop Robert Lane, considered one of the top hitters and top quarterbacks in Louisiana, had a pair of two-run homers in his first two at-bats as LSU coaches watched him help beat the Vikings, 19-8, in five innings. Andy Jones and Drew Carson added three-run shots for Neville, which led 19-2 in the fifth inning and won on the 10-run mercy rule.

“That’s probably the best-hitting team we’ll ever see,” said WC coach Randy Broome, whose team has lost three of its last four to surpass the loss total from last year’s team, which went 36-3 en route to the Class 5A state championship. “We got our butts kicked, but we showed a lot of character to fight back like we did. That made the bus ride back a little easier.”

He just hopes the Vikings (10-4) have found their stroke for the next two days. They play at West Monroe today and against Evangel Christian at West Monroe on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. before wrapping up at Ouachita at 7 p.m. Saturday. Two teams from Texas Texarkana and Marshall are also in the Tri-State Shootout.

Brian Pettway went 2-for-3 with a home run, a double and three RBIs while Joey Lieberman hit a two-run homer as WC finished with 11 hits to Neville’s 15.

Left-hander Alex Presley picked up the win for the Tigers (11-0), who are ranked No. 2 in Louisiana’s Class 4A poll. Steven McDevitt took the loss after giving up four hits three of them homers in the first 12/3 innings.

“That’s the sterngth of the team,” Neville coach Robert Bratton said of his team, noting that eight players on his junior-laden team have homered this year. “We’ve seen everybody’s best pitchers all year. I don’t think we saw their best.”

Broome took the blame for WC’s early woes. After spotting Neville a 2-0 lead on a rocket to left field by Lane the 6-foot-3, 220-pound son of ex-LSU and NLU quarterback Bob Lane the Vikings responded in the bottom of the first. Chris Hite led off with a single and John Morgan Mims followed with a double. Hite scored on Pettway’s groundout to make it 2-1. With two outs, Mims got thrown out trying to steal third with Carl Upton at bat.

“I ran us out of that inning, and if we score again there, it could have been a whole new ballgame our mindset would have been different,” he said. “I took the bat out of Carl’s hand. That was my bonehead, and I apologized to them for that.”