The only constant for the Warren Central Lady Vikes so far this softball season, is change.

Well, change and scoring a whole lot of runs.

The Lady Vikes used a couple of different lineups but didn’t miss a beat offensively Saturday, as they won two games at the Vicksburg High Tournament to remain undefeated.
Warren Central beat Madison-St. Joseph 9-5 and Vicksburg High 8-2. Both games lasted only four innings because of a tournament time limit.

“We’re obviously excited that we’re winning. We still have a lot of things that we need to work out. If you notice, in a lot of games we are changing a few things around,” Warren Central coach Dana McGivney said. “We’re still not sure exactly what we want, and we’re probably going to do that throughout the season. Especially on tournament days we won’t go with the same lineup two games in a row. It’s seemed to work for us so far and we know our personnel and sometimes we need to make changes.”

Warren Central has scored 65 runs in its first five games. Mason Smith went 4-for-5 with three doubles, three runs scored and four RBIs in the two games Saturday. Kayleigh Karel drove in two runs in each game.

The Lady Vikes jumped out to a 9-1 lead through two innings against Madison-St. Joe and cruised to the win. Against Vicksburg, they scored five runs in the top of the fourth to take an 8-1 lead.

The only ball the Lady Vikes hit out of the infield in the big fourth inning against Vicksburg was an RBI single by Smith. Two walks, a hit batter and a bunt single by Brianna Daughtry spurred the rally along.

McGivney said it was the kind of situational softball her team has excelled at so far this season, and the kind she wants to build their reputation on.

“I wanted to see our hitting, and for us to be a complete team,” McGivney said. “I wanted to see us strike out less, put the ball in play, and whether I call a hit and run or bunt and run, just being able to execute the play at that time. I think we’ve done that fairly well this season.”

For Vicksburg, the outcome was not nearly as enjoyable. The Missy Gators committed two errors, only had two hits of their own, and their pitchers issued five free passes on walks and hit batters.

VHS coach Brian Ellis said some of that is attributable to a young roster, and should improve as the season goes along.

“We just need to continue to get better and learn from the mistakes that we make each and every time we play and practice. As long as we’re doing that, we’re going to be making progress,” Ellis said. “It’s going to be different results. If we make the plays that are given to us, then the outcome of the game is way different. We threw the ball around and they scored three runs on one play. They didn’t hit the ball out of the infield.”