VIDALIA, La. &045; All it took was one little earned run to get Barry Bowden angry.

Blame in on Jonesboro-Hodge, who got two hits off the Vidalia ace right-hander Thursday in the top of the first in the Class 2A bi-district

playoff matchup. So Bowden took out his frustrations on the Tigers by striking out nine and allowing one hit after that as the Vikings pounded J-H for a 15-1 win in five innings.

The win pits the Vikings (25-0) against St. Thomas Aquinas, a 3-2 winner over Farmerville Thursday, Monday in Vidalia.

&uot;That first inning he started off slow,&uot; Vidalia head coach Johnny Lee Hoffpauir said. &uot;His fastball didn’t have the pop on it, but the second, third and fourth innings he came around real well. He’s a bulldog out there. After that first inning, he came off the mound and you could see he wasn’t happy. That’s the kind of pitcher he is.&uot;

That’s the high level Bowden &045; who came in with a microscopic ERA of 0.34 &045; pitches. He also wasn’t happy about his only walk of the game that came during the fifth inning after he went three balls deep in the count just once before then.

&uot;My fastball was working, but I wasn’t hitting my spots,&uot; Bowden said. &uot;I don’t know why I couldn’t throw strikes. Everything I was throwing was high or in the dirt. That (walk) was the bottom of the lineup, and I was just trying to throw a strike.&uot;

The Tigers got that first run when Bradley Cole’s grounder to third scored Nathan Shows, and Cole was the first of 11 straight batters Bowden retired &045; none of which put the ball out of the infield.

During that time the Vikings scored 11 runs to take control of the game, and Bowden did his part on the mound &045; both with the fastball and the occasional breaking pitch.

&uot;He picked it up in the middle innings and hit 89 (mph) four times,&uot; Hoffpauir said. &uot;That (curveball) has been his pitch all year. When you’ve got that hook along with that fastball, that makes you a great pitcher. He’s a great pitcher, and that’s why he’s going to the next level.&uot;

The Vikings did their part at the plate in the second with a 10-run inning to blow the game open off starter Cody Newton. The Vikings took advantage of two errors, two walks and three hit batsmen while coming through with three key hits &045; two homers and a bases-loaded double &045; for an 11-1 lead.

The Tigers (13-9) finished with six errors for the game while walking seven and hitting four.

&uot;That’s kind of been the case most of the year,&uot; Jonesboro-Hodge head coach Joe Lockhart said. &uot;We’re pretty young, and we had some unfortunate incidents this year. We’ve gone from 18 players down to 13, and some of them where key players. Errors and walks have kind of been our downfall. Vidalia is a disciplined ball team, and you can’t give that type of team extra outs. That’s when you get a 10-spot hung on you.&uot;

Vidalia scored one in the first despite leaving the bases loaded, and Bowden provided the first spark in the second with a three-run homer, and Chris Williams scored on an error. Chris Ensminger was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Ty Eicemann, and Hank Marling doubled home three runs for a 9-1 lead.

Trey White followed with a two &045;run homer for the 11-1 lead.

The Tigers brought in Brad May in the third, and he held the Vikings scoreless in the fourth before the Vikings got four in the fourth thanks to three walks and three errors.

&uot;The first inning we hit the ball hard but right at people,&uot; Hoffpauir said. &uot;I thought we hit the ball well for two innings, but they brought in the guy with the offspeed stuff, and he got in our heads a little bit. But I thought we hit the ball well. We did it in two ways &045; after they made mistakes, we got some big hits and ran the bases aggressively. Right now I like the mental aspect of this team.&uot;