Even though it counted in the Region 4-6A standings, Friday’s matchup with Greenville was relatively meaningless for Warren Central. The Vikings’ playoff fate is tied to next week’s showdown with Clinton.

Still, on senior night and with nothing better to do, the Vikings went ahead and put on a show.

Wesley Ricks hit a two-run home run and Farmer Abendroth a two-run double during an eight-run explosion in the first inning that propelled Warren Central to a 14-1 run-rule victory over the Hornets.

“We had a couple of days off and were fresh,” said Ricks, who is batting .500 (10-for-20) in his last five games and had his fourth multiple-hit game in that span. “We were swinging the bat pretty good out here. I think we were kind of tired toward the end of last week and got a couple of days off to freshen up and got back to business.”

The victory stopped a two-game losing streak for Warren Central (17-7, 7-1 Region 4-6A) and served as a key checkpoint on its road to the Class 6A playoffs. Greenville (7-10, 0-6) was the last opponent on the schedule with a losing record and, although the Hornets are likely to qualify for the playoffs as the third team from Region 4-6A, likely the last “easy” game remaining.

Warren Central plays Madison Central Saturday at 1 p.m., crosstown rival St. Aloysius on Monday, and then Clinton for the region championship next Friday. All three games are at Viking Field. The regular-season finale is April 13 at Class 6A power Oak Grove.

“We schedule games like that to get into playoff mode. We’ll play quality opponents throughout the rest of the year,” Warren Central coach Conner Douglas said. “We’ve given them some time off this past week. We’ve been really tired. Bodies are tired, legs are tired, arms have gotten tired, so we gave them a week off for this very reason. Starting tomorrow it’s going to be a grind of we’ve got to rebound and have all our arms throwing their best.”

Warren Central has had some ups and downs this season, and was recently on a down. A 10-1 rout of Clinton on March 29 was its only win in the past four games.

It took some of that frustration out on Greenville by batting around and scoring eight runs in the bottom of the first inning after the Hornets had scratched a run across in the top half.

The Vikings tacked on four more runs in the second — Abendroth had another RBI double — to make it 12-1, and cruised to the victory in five innings.

Abendroth and Ricks both finished with two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Hank Holdiness walked once, was hit by a pitch twice, and scored three runs. Sean Daily and Peyton McCurley also had two RBIs apiece.

The Vikings finished with 10 hits. Eight of those were off of Greenville ace Ervin Simmons, whose fastball tops out at close to 90 mph. Simmons gave up 12 runs and did not make it out of the second inning.

“We just had a good approach at the plate. When it was across the plate, we hammered it. We swung it really well tonight and were very aggressive with it,” Douglas said. “A Greenville team like that, they’re dangerous if you let them hang around, especially with a good arm on the mound. We did what we were supposed to do. We jumped on them early and put them away.”