Defensive disaster dooms Lady Vikes

Published 12:56 am Sunday, April 24, 2016

There were a lot of words that could describe Warren Central’s defensive effort on Saturday.

Implosion. Meltdown. Self-destruction. Disaster.

They all meant the same thing — the end of the season for the Lady Vikes.

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Warren Central committed 10 errors in the game, including six that led to six unearned runs for Tupelo in the fourth inning, and lost 7-2 in Game 2 of a Class 6A softball playoff series.

Tupelo (16-9) swept the best-of-three series and advanced to face DeSoto Central in the second round. Warren Central (11-10) lost in the first round of the playoffs for the eighth time in nine years.

“Days like today seem to sum up the entire season,” Warren Central coach Dana McGivney said. “One bad inning killed us in every loss we had. We need to get mentally tough and play seven innings in order to be successful.”

Warren Central led Tupelo in both games of the series before letting it get away. Brooke Patterson singled and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first inning Saturday for a 1-0 lead. Tupelo answered in the second inning, and then came the fatal fourth.

Five different players committed errors in the fourth inning as Tupelo scored six runs on only two hits. A hit batter, a walk and a passed ball were mixed in for good measure. When it was finally over, the Golden Wave had a 7-1 lead.

“I have no idea what happened. Our pitchers did a great job. We just had a meltdown and unfortunately it cost us the game,” McGivney said. “It’s extremely hard to watch, especially when we make those plays every day in practice.”

Two Tupelo errors helped Warren Central get a run back in the bottom of the fifth, but it just wasn’t the Lady Vikes’ day. They mustered seven hits — three by Patterson and two by Kaitlyn Mitchell — and not much else.

Tupelo pitcher Ivy Watts retired eight of the last nine batters she faced.

“Neither team hit as well today. They changed pitchers (from Friday), but we should’ve been able to score more runs,” McGivney said. “We had opportunities but didn’t capitalize on them.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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