NATCHEZ &045; Things could have turned out a lot worse than this.

With as much talent lost from a season ago and as poor as their start this fall, Natchez High’s Lady Bulldogs didn’t have much of an identity or many strengths when the season kicked off in August.

Even in the face of a 6-2 defeat at home to Warren Central Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs could take solace in two factors &045; there’s been significant improvement since the start, and they’re all but in the playoffs.

They will wrap up division play Tuesday at home against Vicksburg.

&uot;We’ve got so many inexperienced players,&uot; Natchez head coach Charlie Williams said. &uot;They haven’t had much time to play. But we’re looking forward to the second season. All we’ve got to do is not let Vicksburg beat us by 14 runs, and we’re in. I’m still proud of them. We’ve come a long way from Game 1.&uot;

The Lady Vikings (3-0, 15-5) all but wrapped up the division title, but they still have yet to play Vicksburg today. Then and only then will the team talk about playoffs, although Tuesday’s win all but wrapped up the title and a first-round playoff series at home.

And, as head coach Lucy Young noted, it put the program two wins away from No. 400.

&uot;I guess if you look at head to head, we’d still be first place,&uot; Young said. &uot;That’s if they come to play and they hit. We’re preparing for the state playoffs, and we’ve got several strong teams coming up.

&uot;We’ve got a lot of goals in mind, but you’ve got to credit Natchez. This is one of the most improved teams. They lost a lot from last year. From early in the year, they corrected the mistakes they were making. They’re a well-coached team.&uot;

Things could have been a bit better for the Lady Bulldogs (1-2, 3-8) had they come up with a couple of key hits. The defense was improved, despite four errors, but they left runners on base every inning &045; including leaving them loaded in the second.

Natchez left 10 stranded for the game.

&uot;That’s our problem &045; we just didn’t get the key hits when we needed it,&uot; Williams said. &uot;I think we had two or three people in scoring position a couple of times but didn’t get the key hits. We’ve been battling the hitting all year &045; hitting and defense &045; but we played a little bit better defensively than we normally do. We just didn’t hit.&uot;

Warren Central’s bats were hot and cold after a four-run fourth inning for a 5-0 lead, and Natchez came with some damage in the fifth when Kristy Franklin slugged one to the fence in left for a two-run homer.

Warren Central had just one hit in its final three innings, but the Lady Vikings took advantage of an error in the seventh when Fatima Chase hit a fly ball to right center that fell in.

With Chase at third and Shawn Johnson at first, Amanda Doyle flied out in the infield for the second out. Johnson tried to tag up from first, the Lady Bulldogs tried unsuccessfully to throw her out &045; allowing Chase to score from third.

&uot;We’re hitting too many fly balls,&uot; Young said. &uot;That’s one of our biggest things. And we’re leaving runners in scoring position. We’re putting people on base, but we’ve got to come up with the hits that are going to score runs.&uot;

The Lady Vikings did that in the fourth inning with that big inning. Mandy Fuller broke it open with a ball ove Ke’Airra Jones’ head in right that wound up being a three-run homer driving in Katelyn Patton and Bridget Dillon.

Patton singled in a run after Mandy Bordelon reached on an error for the first run of the inning.

&uot;I had just told her to take that pitch where it was thrown,&uot; Young said. &uot;She took it from the outside. So many times they’ll take the outside pitch and put it on the same ol’ side of the field.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs couldn’t answer in the fourth and struggled as they did in the early innings. In the second they loaded the bases with one out when Jennifer Jackson singled with Megan Cater and Bianca Robinson on base, but a flyout to the pitcher and a groundout to shortstop ended the inning.

&uot;You can’t give a team like Warren Central four outs,&uot; Williams said. &uot;We’ve been battling that all year. Catching the ball with two hands makes a big difference. They don’t realize that.&uot;

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