By Brad Greer

The South Panola baseball team ended its home portion of their summer league schedule Friday afternoon by splitting a doubleheader with the Hernando Tigers.

In the opening game, visiting Hernando scored five unanswered runs to take a 5-2 win in the junior varsity contest before South Panola battled back to take the second game by the score of 6-4.

South Panola jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first game as DeShawn Lindsey led off the bottom of the first with a single and later scored on a infield error. In the bottom of the second, Cody Harbour reached first after being hit by a pitch then advanced to second on a wild pitch. One batter later, Adam Cook blooped a single into shallow right that allowed Harbour to score.

Those would be the last runs the home team would score however as Hernando scored three runs in the third and two more in the fifth to claim victory. Hernando collected six hits in the game while South Panola registered four as Deon Mix, Preston Blair, Cook and Lindsey all singled.

Taylor Karr was tagged with the loss after giving up three runs on four hits in three innings of work on the mound. Harbour tossed the final two innings for the Tigers, giving up two runs on two hits while striking out two and walking one batter.

South Panola bounced back in the second game however by scoring a pair of runs in bottom of the first and three more in the fourth. Chris Townsend scored the first of his three runs in the bottom of the first on Hunter Durham’s RBI double. Lee Self followed with a single and later came home on a J. W. Willis two-out single to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

Hernando answered with three runs in the top of the second off South Panola starting pitcher Colby Gammill to take a 3-2 advantage. The score would stay that way until the fourth when South Panola took the lead for good by scoring three runs in the frame. The big blow of the inning came when Bobby Epps delivered a two-run single to plate Tays Hardy and Townsend. Willis led off the inning with a walk then scored on an error to tie the game at three.

The Tigers tacked on an insurance run in the sixth as Townsend led off the inning with a double and later scored on Self’s sacrifice fly. Gammill tossed four innings to pick up the victory while Durham pitched two scoreless innings of relief.

South Panola will end its summer season Thursday at Hernando.

Four of the Tiger players are participating in the State Games of Mississippi this week: Townsend, Self, Taylor Meeks and Epps.