By Angie Ledbetter

The South Panola Lady Tiger fastpitch softball claim the District 2-6A championship after defeating Grenada 5-1 Thursday night.

South Panola ran the table in the district ending undefeated, 6-0.

The Lady Tigers (18-7 overall) earned a first round bye and will play Northwest Rankin, who defeated Olive Branch this weekend. South Panola will travel to Brandon to play Northwest Rankin at 5 p.m. and return home for games two and three, if necessary, on Saturday starting at 2 p.m.

Northwest Rankin Cougars defeated Olive Branch 5-1 in first game and 5-3 in the second.
Making the playoffs and finishing the district undefeated is a big deal for the team, said Lady Tiger head coach Ashleigh Hicks.

“This is where we wanted to be come playoff time and situated where we are on the bracket,” she said. “We’ve accomplished our first focus and now we’re going to take one round of playoffs at a time.”

There will be a week off of playing for the team which concerns Hicks a little.

“That’s going to be a big deal but my goal is to scrimmage and hit live pitching every day this week.”

Against Grenada in the first inning, South Panola scored two runs. Amanda Ivy tripled to left, her fifth of the season, to drive home Caroline Dickins who had walked to get on base for the first run.
Ivy scored on a single by Meri Morgan Fortune.

The Lady Tigers’ bats were relatively quiet until top of the fifth when they scored two more runs.

With the bases loaded, Nicole Fullilove singled to drive home Ivy, who had singled. With the bases still loaded, Fortune scored when Lindsey Calvert got hit by a pitch.

The Lady Chargers scored their only run in the bottom of the frame when lead off batter Janie Turner scored on  second baseman Cristen Eiknen’s single.

Fullilove picked up the win, facing 28 batters, striking out eight and allowing five walks. She ended the regular season having pitched 146 innings over 26 games. She maintains her No. 1 ranking  with 186 strikeouts.

The Lady Tigers had nine hits, left 11 on base and committed one error. The Lady Chargers had four hits, left eight on base and two errors.

Hitting for the Lady Tigers were Fortune, three hits, one run, one RBI (run batted in); Ivy, two hits-one triple, two runs, one RBI, 11 put outs; Fullilove, one hit, one run, one RBI.  Marla Rudd, two hits, one double, one RBI.