Warren Central tried to hurdle its way to a win over arch-rival Vicksburg Thursday night, but in the end was denied.

Vicksburg completed its second straight season sweep of the Vikings with an 8-4 victory at Bazinsky Field. It did so after getting an initial safe call reversed on WC’s Adam Lee’s giant leap over Vicksburg catcher Blake Hynum.

The Vikings (3-10) had just pulled to within two runs of the Gators at 6-4 after Lee doubled in Heath Carroll with one out in the top of the sixth inning against VHS reliever Kurt Cooksey. Lee then went to third on Jonathan Longmire’s hit up the middle which also put the tying run on base.

Cooksey came back to strike out Jason Pettway for the second out. WC then tried to bait the Gators with Longmire straying off first in a bid to force a rundown. Lee broke home. The throw was there in plenty of time for catcher Blake Hynum, but Lee jumped over the croutched catcher and was ruled safe by the home plate umpire.

“That was the most unreal thing I’ve seen in baseball,” Hynum said. “I’ve never seen anybody even try that before.”

According to both WC coach Randy Broome and Vicksburg coach Jamie Creel, one reason is that its an illegal play in high school baseball.

“It’s called hurdling and in high school baseball you have to attempt to slide,” Broome said. “Jamie came out and reminded them of the rule. They made the correct call.”

“It’s against the rules,” Creel said. “When the catcher has possession of the ball, you have to attempt to slide. It was put in to specifically to cut down on home plate collisions. Randy acted like he was mad then jokingly said, ‘You have to know every rule.’ It was heckuva jump by Adam. And I guess the umpire was just caught up in the moment and wanted to reward his hustle.”

Lee was ruled out and Vicksburg went to the dugout, still ahead 6-4.

In the bottom of the sixth, Hynum led off with a double.

“I just trying to get a hit,” said Hynum, who finished 2-for-2 with two runs scored. After Ryan Ferrington was hit by a pitch from Lee, who entered as a reliever after Hynum’s double, Delmon Robinson laid down a bunt to move the runners up a base.

WC then intentionally walked Stanton Price to load the bases. A passed ball brought Hynum in. Trey Prentiss plated Ferrington with an RBI groundout to third for an 8-4 lead.

Vicksburg (10-5) took control of the game with a six-run second inning. The Gators made use of six hits and two errors. Price had the big hit with a two-run double against WC starter Keaton Sanders. After an out, Prentiss, Cooksey and Bowen Woodson all drove in one each with a hit.

WC cut the lead in half, getting three runs in the third inning without a hit. Two errors and three straight walks by Gator starter Brian Fitzgerald brought in the runs.

“Fitz only had one pitch working but he gutted it out and got us to the fifth inning,” Creel said. “I thought Blake had a real good game, especially after dislocating a finger.”

Fitzgerald, now 2-1, got two out in the fifth before allowing his sixth walk. Cooksey came in and got a ground out to end the inning.

Vicksburg finished with eight hits with Hynum and Prentiss each getting two. WC had six hits with Carroll leading the way with two doubles and a single. The Vikings, however, left 11 on base.

“Sooner or later, we’re going to put this together. We were better than we were Tuesday,” Broome said. “Every inning we had something going, but Vicksburg didn’t let us come in.”