It’s beginning to be old hat for Warren Central.

For the second year in a row, the Warren Central Lady Vikes won a division title. For the second year in a row, WC coach Dana McGivney is the Vicksburg Post Coach of the Year and her best player, Chasity Hearn, earns her first player of the year honor.

Next year, however, McGivney hopes to break a trend of first-round playoff exits. To do so, the Lady Vikes will need improvement in three key statistical areas, batting average, fielding percentage and earned run average.

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The Lady Vikes went 14-12 with a very young team. Only one senior, catcher Blair Thornton, was lost to graduation. Hearn, who batted .289, returns for her junior season along with seven other players that include both starting pitchers, all of the outfield and the rest of the infield.

McGivney, though, wants more. That’s why she has put together a summer tournament schedule for her returning players and her junior varsity. The Lady Vikes 16-and-under and 14-and-under teams played in last weekend’s Rumble on the River. The varsity Lady Vikes went 1-2 in the main draw.

“I didn’t help there to be a summer dropoff and I think by playing some tournaments against these select teams will help us. The more you play, the better you can get,” McGivney said.

McGivney is hoping to use tournament play to improve her team’s offense. They batted just .226 and averaged just 6.26 runs and 6.38 hits per game.

“We have got to hit better. I think if we can bring the team batting average up, to say .350, then we will be a lot more competitive with the better teams,” McGivney said.

The two areas that will benefit are defense and pitching. The Lady Vikes made 60 errors last season and the team fielding percentage was .901. The team ERA was 5.64.

“I actually thought we played pretty well defensively. We would have our bad inning, but for the most part, we were pretty good. One of the problems we had this past weekend was people playing out of position and we don’t have Sissy (Hearn) with us,” McGivney said. “We also don’t have one of our pitchers, Chelsea (Worley), who is in Europe, but we do have Mallory Reynolds.”

Hearn, the Lady Vikes’ shortstop, is playing on a select team out of Ridgeland.

“I’m playing center field for the Ridgeland Rampage,” Hearn said. “We have a lot of Northwest Rankin girls. I guess you would say this is an A-ball team. We did not do good down in our tournament at Baton Rouge. But I like getting to play at a high level. This is going to help my hitting. We’ve played 10 games and I’ve already seen some faster pitchers.”

Hearn’s average was solid but not as impressive in comparison to the stats of DeSoto Central, which had six players hitting over .350. The Lady Jaguars blew out WC in two games in a first-round Class 6A series. Still, Hearn’s power numbers were good. She knocked in 26 runs, and had 14 extra base hits including nine doubles and three home runs.

“The season went good, but it could’ve been better,” Hearn said.

Ironically, Hearn could get a chance to bat against her Lady Viking teammates this weekend in Batesville.

“Both of us and the Rampage are entered in the South Panola Tournament. I just hope we don’t have to face them. Sissy will be cracking up whole time,” McGivney said with a laugh.