BRANDON — With one swing, Taylor Brocato gave Vicksburg the lead Thursday. With every pitch after that, Jacob Thomas made it stand up.

Brocato hit a first-inning grand slam and Thomas held Brandon in check with seven strong innings for a complete-game victory as the Gators beat Brandon 4-2 in the opening game of the Mid-Mississippi Classic.

Thomas only needed 95 pitches to go the distance. He gave up three hits and two runs — all in the fourth inning — and walked three.

“Jacob falls into that long line of lefty studs we’ve had. Guys like Stanton Price, (James Jackson) and Chris Wilhelms,” Vicksburg coach Jamie Creel said. “We’re glad to see him wanting that ball in the sixth and seventh innings. I thought about taking him out after he gave up the two runs, but he’s a senior and he wanted to finish it.”

Thomas had four strikeouts and cruised except for the one rough inning. Carey Taylor led off the fourth with a double for Brandon’s first hit, and went to third on a single by A.J. Sampson. Both runners scored on a double to the right center field gap by Andy Olmstead.

Thomas worked out of the jam without further damage and then locked the Bulldogs (0-3) down the rest of the way. He retired nine batters in a row and 10 of the last 11 he faced. After giving up a two-out walk in the seventh inning, he got Nick Gibert to pop the first pitch he saw into left field for the final out.

“After I let those two runners score I knew I had to bolt it down,” Thomas said. “I was just controlling my off-speed pitches and hitting my spots.”

Thomas (2-0) needed to be on because his counterpart for Brandon, Andrew Wilkes (0-1), was almost as effective. Wilkes scattered four hits and three walks over five innings, but had one rough inning that put the Bulldogs in a deep hole.

Lamar Anthony led off the first inning with a single, and Wilkes issued a pair of one-out walks to load the bases. Brocato then belted a pitch over the left center field fence for the grand slam that put Vicksburg ahead 4-0.

Wilkes faced the minimum over the three innings — he gave up one hit, but the runner was caught stealing — and was lifted after giving up a leadoff double to Justin Pettway and a walk to Cameron Cooksey in the fifth. Vicksburg (3-1) was unable to capitalize on that rally, however. Cooksey was picked off of first base and Gibert came on in relief to get two strikeouts to end the threat.

Gibert struck out five and allowed one hit in 21⁄3 innings of relief. Creel said that while the early slam gave the Gators an early boost, it also caused them to relax.

“I felt that deflated our offense instead of picking it up. We sat on that lead for a while,” Creel said.

Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com