Warren Central’s busy baseball weekend on the Mississippi Gulf Coast did not get off to a great start. Its second outing went a whole lot better.

Vantrel Reed doubled twice and drove in two runs, Chase Graham went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored, and the Vikings banged out 13 hits as they routed Columbia Academy 13-3 on Friday at the Battle at the Beach spring break tournament.

Warren Central (9-4) bounced back after losing 10-0 to Biloxi in its first game at the tournament on Thursday. It was to play Stone later Friday night and Class 6A powerhouse Gulfport on Saturday morning at 10 at MGM Park — home of the minor league Biloxi Shuckers ­— in Biloxi.

Slade Wilks led off the game with a home run for Columbia Academy (8-5), but it didn’t take long for Warren Central to get that run back and then some.

A pair of two-out walks in the bottom of the first set up an RBI single by Hank Holdiness. The Vikings then scored six runs in the second inning. Reed and Peyton McCurley each had an RBI double to help blow the game open.

McCurley, Wesley Ricks and Landon Bull all had two hits apiece for Warren Central. Reed, Caleb Sterling and Holdiness had two RBIs each.

Reed pitched a complete game shortened to four innings by the mercy rule. He allowed three runs, only one earned, on two hits and two walks. He also had eight strikeouts.

St. Al 8, Buckhorn 7
Brandon Steed turned the day from a disaster to a lasting memory with one swing.
Steed hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning to give St. Aloysius a win over Buckhorn (Ala.) in the Battle at the Beach tournament on the Coast.

Steed’s game-winner came after the Flashes (5-3) had blown a three-run lead in the top of the seventh. They had also lost 4-3 to Heritage Academy in the first half of a split doubleheader earlier Friday afternoon.

Steed was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored against Buckhorn. Ethan Parmegiani doubled twice and drove in two runs, while twin brothers James and Thomas Trichell had two hits apiece.

Parmegiani got St. Al’s winning rally started with a leadoff double. A walk and an error on a pickoff attempt at second base put runners at second and third with no outs, and Steed hit a single to left field to bring in pinch-runner Thomas Phillips with the game-winning run.

It was St. Al’s second big rally of the game. It scored four runs in the fourth after Buckhorn had taken a 4-3 lead in the top half of the inning.

Haden Luke and Thomas Trichell had RBI singles in the fourth inning, and both scored later on as the Flashes took a 7-4 lead.

Lane Hubbard pitched a complete game to get the win. He allowed five earned runs, nine hits and three walks, but also struck out five and pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh after Buckhorn had tied the game at 7. He threw 117 pitches.

Buckhorn’s tying rally was spurred by two walks, two hit batters and an error.

In the Flashes’ first game of the day, Heritage Academy scored three times in the top of the first inning and then held on.

Parmegiani went 2-for-3 with an RBI double, while Kieran Theriot had an RBI single and scored on Parmegiani’s double in the third inning.

Steed pitched three innings and took the loss. Tyler Breithaupt finished with four innings of scoreless relief, allowing only one hit while striking out three. The two St. Al pitchers also combined to walk eight batters.