By Brad Greer

Most baseball players in general are taught not to have long memories, but no one can blame South Panola for remembering the last time they faced Lafayette County on the diamond. Last season, the Commodores erased a 13-4 fifth-inning deficit to stun the Tigers 21-14 in Batesville.

The roles were reversed this time around however as a six-run third inning propelled South Panola to a 11-5 victory Saturday afternoon in Oxford.

Chance Whitten led the Tigers offensively with three singles while Chris Townsend knocked in three runs on a pair of doubles as South Panola extended their winning streak to five games in a row.

“I told the guys it is good to have a short-term memory, but on a day like today it’s okay to remember what happened the last time we played these guys,” said Tiger head coach Patrick Robey.

South Panola took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a two- out double by Andrew Horne followed by Whitten’s RBI single. Lafayette County responded with four unearned runs on two Tiger errors in the bottom half of the frame to take a 4-1 advantage. South Panola cut the ‘Dores lead to 4-2 in the following inning on Townsend’s RBI double to drive in Matt Jones who reached on a two-out error.

South Panola (6-2) blew the game open in the third as the first six batters reached off Commodore starting pitcher T. J. Hollis. Horne and Whitten led off the inning with a walk and single. Hollis then hit fellow counterpart Taylor Meek to load the bases with no outs. After Tays Hardy blooped a single down the right field line to drive in a run, Bobby Epps hit another single up the middle to drive in Whitten to tie the game at four.

The Tigers took the lead for good as Lafayette County reliever Eli Murphree walked Will Dickins to force in courtesy runner Hays Hudson. Jones followed with a sacrifice fly  to score Hardy to give South Panola a 6-4 cushion.Townsend ended the scoring with a two-run double that plated courtesy runner Morgan Tubbs and Dickins.

South Panola added to the lead with two more runs as Whitten and Meek singled and later scored on an Epps  sacrifice fly and an error.

“We had an ugly first inning but then responded with eight straight runs and I told them we have been here before and just have to focus on one pitch at a time. We had a lot of good at bats and a lot of guys came in and threw strikes. Matt (Jones) put the bat on the ball today and Landon Fullilove did a solid job at short filling in for Chris (Townsend). We just have to keep grinding and get better as a team,” said Robey.

Deshawn Lindsay accounted for South Panola’s final run in the seventh by reaching on a walk and later scored on a wild pitch.

Taylor Meek (2-0) earned the pitching victory by pitching the first three innings. The senior righty gave up five hits, four unearned runs while walking three and striking out four. Hunter Ivy followed with two innings of work while surrendering one run on one hit. Jones and Taylor Karr finished out the contest by tossing the sixth and seventh inning.

South Panola collected 13 hits on the day and left nine runners on base. Lafayette County (3-4) registered seven hits while stranding eight runners on the basepaths.

The Tigers will take on Marshall Academy tomorrow at 11:15 a.m. followed by Horn Lake at 8:15 p.m. in the Oxford Spring Break tournament (schedule below).