John Hicks powered Greenwood to a hot start on the District 14 schedule with a pair of home runs in a 15-3 rout over Warren Central on Monday night.

Greenwood (8-3 overall, 1-0 District 14) earned the win in five innings by hanging 10 runs in the first two frames with the help of a three-run homer from Hicks in the first and his two-run bomb in the second.

Nate Cunningham earned the win in a one-hit shutout through four innings in Game 1 of the series.

“We’re confident,” Hicks said. “Everyone is playing right where they need to be. I think we still have a long way to go, but there’s a lot of potential here.”

The Gators have scored double-digit runs for victories in three of their last four games. The lone loss in that stretch was a one-run defeat to Lexington Christian during a four-game stretch last week in Florida.

Greenwood used nine hits and a wealth of early errors from Warren Central to run-rule the Dragons.

Warren Central (3-3, 0-1) committed five of its seven errors in the first two innings. The Dragons finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth when Josh Hurt broke up Cunningham’s no-hitter before scoring three runs on Colton Jones in the fifth.

“You saw tonight we got some guys off the bench and they all came in and produced,” GHS coach Jason Jaggers said about using 18 batters. “Just getting some more guys some opportunities and some looks. What I liked is those guys who didn’t start were cheering on the guys that are starters, then when the roles were reversed, they did the same thing. It’s all about the family unit this team has.”

The Dragons host the Gators in Game 2 on Tuesday night before the series wraps up at Greenwood on Thursday.

Warren Central falls back to .500 through six games. The Dragons have already eclipsed their 2017 win total with five-inning wins over Russellville, Todd County Central and Caverna.

“As young as we still are, our young guys still have that year of experience underneath their belt,” Dragons coach Adam Biller said. “We took our lumps last year, but we got better. I think tonight we reverted a bit back to our old ways and we just explained to them that you cannot let the lights get too bright. We play our game and we’re fine, but some of our young guys still seem to get a bit shell-shocked when the lights come on in a district game.”

Hicks started the Gators’ five-run inning with a three-run homer over the left field wall against Dragons sophomore starter Jordan Miller. Cade Thornton scored on an error and Adam Schneller made it 5-0 by scoring from third on a wild pitch.

Greenwood kept pouring it on in the second.

Dell Henk cleaned the bases with a two-run double and scored a few pitches later on Hicks’ second homer to make it 9-0.

The senior first baseman now has three homers in the last two games.

“It’s pretty great,” Hicks said. “Coach has been talking about lining the ball out and making square contact. It really comes around when you’re making square contact. I got a couple of good pitches and I just didn’t miss on them at all.”

Greenwood went through the entire lineup in the second inning, adding one more run on an error to make it 10-0.

After going scoreless in the third, Greenwood scored again in the fourth with Maddox Burr’s RBI single and a bases-loaded walk.

The Gators had the lead stretched to 15 runs when Jordan Miller put the Dragons on the board with an RBI groundout and Dakota Pedigo’s two-run double setting the final margin.

First pitch Tuesday night at Warren Central is at 7:30.

GHS 550 23 – 15

WCHS 000 03 – 3

WP: Cunningham. LP: Miller.