Tupelo slips by SP baseball, 2-0

By Brad Greer
Even though the schedule said it was the opening week of district play, South Panola and Tupelo staged what seemed like a playoff atmosphere as the two teams met in game two of a three-game series Friday night at Tiger Field.
Just as  their first meeting last Tuesday in which saw Tupelo come away with a 4-2 win, a pitchers’ duel ensued between the Golden Wave’s Charlie Greer and South Panola lefty Blaine Ware. But in the end it was Tupelo coming away with a 2-0 victory on Greer’s complete game one-hitter.
Tupelo improved to 7-6 and 2-0 in Region 2-6A play while South Panola fell to 2-9 and 0-2. The Tigers regularly scheduled game Saturday at Desoto Central was postponed due to rain.
“Tonight really did feel like a playoff type game and like I’ve told the guys, if you play well people are going to see you and they did. It was a great crowd  tonight and we can not thank them enough for coming out and supporting these young men,” said Tiger head coach Jake Mills.
Tupelo got on the board in the fourth as Labryant Siddell singled and later scored on Steven Matthews two-out single. The Golden Wave added an insurance run in the sixth as Josh Smith came in the score on a fielders’ choice by Matthews.
That turned out all the support Greer would  need as the right hander struck out nine while walking two. Gehrig Griffin recorded South Panola’s lone hit with a two-out single in the fifth inning.
Greer retired the first ten batters he faced before issuing a one out walk to Bowen Williams in the fourth inning.
Ware meanwhile scattered four hits over seven innings while walking one and fanning three.
“I cannot say enough about the job Blaine did on the mound for us tonight. The kid went out and competed on every pitch against a very good Tupelo team. But give credit to their guy also  he did an outstanding job,” said Mills.
The defensive gem of the night came in the fifth as South Panola shortstop Noah Willis robbed South Sanders of a hit by making a Sports Center worthy diving stab on a hard hit ground ball.
SP JV 5, Tupelo 4
Luke Weldon’s game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the fifth scored Denver Brown to give the Tigers a come-from-behind 5-4 victory.
South Panola spotted Tupelo a 4-0 lead in the first before rallying for four runs in the fourth and the deciding run in the fifth.
Dawson Griffin and Hunter Hudson paced South Panola at the plate with two singles. Brandon Phelps also chipped in with a single. Griffin, Gage Heath, John Culp and Wes Morgan all delivered RBI’s in the winning effort.
Weldon also picked up the pitching win by working a scoreless fifth inning of relief. Griffin got the starting nod on the hill and went two innings before giving way to Morgan who worked two innings of scoreless relief with three strikeouts on one hit.
South Panola hosts Hernando tonight starting at 5 p.m. with the Junior Varsity following at 7 p.m. with varsity action.