Warren Central’s softball season came to a swift and sudden conclusion on Wednesday.

Kristian Jones hit a two-run home run, Callie Newman went 2-for-3 with a double, three RBIs and two runs scored, and DeSoto Central eliminated Warren Central from the MHSAA Class 6A playoffs with a 12-0 victory.

DeSoto Central, the defending Class 6A champion, swept the best-of-three series and advanced to face Madison Central in the third round beginning on Friday.

Warren Central finished its season with an 11-17 record.

Warren Central easily swept its first-round playoff series against Oxford, but was no match for a DeSoto Central team chasing a state championship repeat. The Jaguars won both games in five innings via the mercy rule — and by identical 12-0 scores — and their pitchers held Warren Central to a total of four hits while racking up 20 strikeouts in 10 innings in the series.

Megan Vinson had seven strikeouts and did not allow a hit in three innings in Game 2, but did walk two batters. Haylee Alberson threw two innings and allowed two hits and one walk.
Warren Central did not get a runner past second base. Laura Regan Logue and Kallie Page had the Lady Vikes’ two hits, both singles off of Alberson in the fourth inning. Mary Evelyn Hossley walked twice.

DeSoto Central scored in every inning, but the first two were decisive.

Newman and Sterling James both had RBI singles in the bottom of the first as the Jaguars jumped out to a 3-0 lead. A two-run double by Newman and Jones’ home run highlighted a five-run rally in the second that stretched the lead to 8-0, and the Jaguars added two runs each in the third and fourth innings.

Kaitlyn Bednarek also had two hits for DeSoto, and Hannah Randall scored two runs.