VIDALIA — Not wanting to disappoint in its regular-season home opener, the Vidalia High School baseball team kept Peabody High School in check in an 8-6 win Thursday.

Peabody was able to cut a 6-2 lead to 6-5 in the top of the fifth, but a two-run bottom of the fifth sealed the win for the Vikings, who improved to 2-3 on the year.

“We had decent pitching and were able to put the ball in play,” Vidalia head coach Tim Herndon said.

“We weren’t as good as I thought we could be at the plate. We did get a few timely hits, but we left a lot of runners on base. Overall, though, I was tickled to death. We played good defense and kept on battling.”

Vidalia surrendered two runs in the top of the first, but answered with three of its own in the bottom half of the frame. Leadoff hitter Nathan Bozeman scored on a single by Caleb Vines, and starting pitcher Corey Williams batted Vines in. Heath White scored on a hit by Lane Strong.

The Vikings added three more runs in the second inning, with Nate Thomas scoring first on a fielder’s choice by White. Bozeman later scored on a passed ball, and Vines added a run on a single by Jamal Davis.

Peabody started crawling back in the top of the fourth with one run. It added two more runs in the top of the fifth, one of which came on a balk by relief pitcher Jamal Davis to make it 6-5 Vidalia.

But the Vikings weren’t going to allow themselves to lose the lead, extending the Vidalia lead to 8-5 in the bottom of the fifth. Thomas scored one run on a double by Bozeman and Bozeman later scored from third on an errant throw during a pickoff attempt.

Peabody added one more run in the top of the sixth.

Williams got the start for the Vikings, surrendering just three runs in four innings. Davis pitched the final three innings, also giving up three runs.

“We wanted Corey to go about four innings,” Herndon said. “He kept us in the game and threw strikes. He ran into a little trouble (in the fourth), but he’s coming back from a broken arm and we’re still trying to get his arm strength back.”

Bozeman and Vines both went 2-for-3.