By Brad Greer

After missing the playoffs by one game in 2010, the South Panola Tigers are back into post-season play this year after holding off a late Columbus rally to defeat the Falcons 10-8 Friday during “Senior Night” at Tiger Field.

South Panola (15-7; 4-4) wrapped up a second place finish in Region 2-6A play behind league champion Tupelo and will travel to  Region 4  third place finisher Vicksburg for game one in a best-of-three game series starting Thursday night at 6 p.m. Game two of the series will be Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Batesville with game three, if nessessary, following afterwards.

South Panola, who had defeated Columbus 3-0 and 12-2 in the first two meetings of the season, looked as if they were going to make quick work of the Falcons as the Tigers scored three runs in the bottom of the first off Columbus starting pitcher Nick Durrah. Chris Townsend and Mitchel Babb led off the game with back-to-back walks then moved up one base on a failed pickoff attempt by Durrah. Lee Self followed by reaching on a fielders’ choice that scored Townsend to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Cleanup hitter Andrew Horne then slapped a single up the middle to chase home Babb for the second run of the inning. Three batters later, DaShawn Lindsey’s RBI groundout plated pinch runner Blake Darby for the final run of the inning.

The score stayed that way until the third when Columbus tied the game at three on a RBI double by leadoff hitter Jimmy Cockrell and consecutive RBI singles by Christian Dale and Chris McCullough off Tiger starting pitcher Self.

South Panola retook the lead in the bottom half of the frame however by scoring four runs after two outs to take a 7-3 advantage.

Taylor Meek started the rally with a one-out single before stealing second. After Lindsey fanned for the second out, Tays Hardy reached on an error before Will Dickins drove in Meek with a RBI single.

Tigers turn shutout into win over WV

By Brad Greer

DaShawn Lindsey may only be a freshman, but Saturday afternoon  he came through in the clutch like a seasoned veteran. Facing an 0-2 count, Lindsey slapped a two-out single in bottom of the seventh that scored Andrew Horne from second to give South Panola a dramatic 10-9 come-from-behind victory over Water Valley.

Trailing 9-6 in the bottom half of the seventh, Blake Darby led off the inning with a walk then stole second. After J. W. Willis struck out for the first out, pinch-hitter Mitchel Babb drilled a triple deep into right to score Darby.

Leadoff hitter Chris Townsend followed with a sacrifice fly that drove in Babb to make the score 9-8. Hunter Durham then blooped a double down the left field line to keep the rally alive. Horne then singled into center to plate Durham with the tying run.

After Hardy greeted Water Valley ace Walt McCullough with yet another single, Lindsey smoked a fastball from McCullough into left as Horne raced home with the game winner.

“I knew I had to execute with a man in scoring position so I had to find a way to get the job done,” said Lindsey of his game-winning hit. “For us to battle back like the way we did, it is going to help us heading into the playoffs.”

Water Valley (12-9) led 8-0 before South Panola made their comeback with a five-run fifth inning. Durham led off the frame with a double before Taylor Meek drew a walk to put runners on first and second.

Tays put the Tigers on the board with a RBI double to drive in Durham. Water Valley starting pitcher Drew Pratt then retired the next two batters before Blake Darby reached on a crucial error to extend the inning. Willis then singled off reliever Taylor King and drove in pinch-runner Matt Jones. Will Dickins followed with a two-RBI bloop double to drive home Darby and Willis.

South Panola closed the margin to 8-6 in the sixth on Lindsey’s RBI single. The Blue Devils added a huge unearned run in the top of the seventh as McCullough reached on a two-out error then scored on J. D. Fondon’s double.

Water Valley came out swinging in the top of the first by scoring five runs off Tiger starting pitcher Horne before added three more in the second before Colby Gammill, the Tigers’ third hurler of the day, held the Blue Devils to one hit over three innings. Gammill registered the win by giving up one earned run while walking three and hitting a batter.

“I just had a mindset to get in there and throw strikes and do my job. I knew I had to hit my spots because they are good hitting ball team. I was mixing up my fastball with a change to try and keep them off balance,” said Gammill, who improved to 3-0 on the season.

Horne surrendered five runs on four hits in .2 innings of work before being relived by Meek who tossed 3.1 innings.

South Panola committed five errors on the day while Water Valley booted the ball around three times in the game. The Blue Devils left 12 runners on base while the Tigers stranded eight on the base paths. Durham, Hardy and Lindsey recorded two hits as the Tigers had 12 hits on the day. Townsend, Horne, Darby and Willis all singled while Babb and Dickins added a triple and double.

Fondon and King led Water Valley with two hits each. King was tagged with the pitching loss after giving up five runs on four hits in two innings of work.