By Angie Ledbetter

Though Tupelo had its chances against the Lady Tigers fastpitch, South Panola shut them out 8-0 in district action Friday night.

It was one of those games you can throw out the records because Tupelo (2-10, 0-1) played South Panola hard and gave it their all for seven innings.

“Tupelo plays their best game against us every year,” said Head Coach Ashleigh Hicks. “I know they came in here 2-9 but I never pay attention to people’s record especially Tupelo.”

The Lady Tigers, already leading 4-0 going into the sixth, put the icing on the cake with four more runs.
Lauren Calvert punched a single to center to get it started but was out at home.

With the bases loaded, Meri Morgan Fortune blasted a bases clearing double to left, driving home Christa Brown, Marla Rudd and Amanda Ivy, who hit back to back singles to load the bases.

Caroline Dickins’ single drove Fortune home for the final run of the game.

The Lady Tigers started the game with three runs, in bottom of the first.

Brown, MaxPreps player of the week, singled, then made her way home for first run of the game.

With two outs the Lady Tigers loaded the bases with Lauren Calvert, Crystal Contreras and Brown.  Rudd reached second on an error as Calvert and Contreras scored.

Lady Tiger head coach Ashleigh Hicks said as a coach it is hard to get the players level up all the time.

“It seems like the past two games we’ve come out flat in the beginning but we’re trying to do some motivational things,” she said. “For years our problem has been the first inning and it still seems to be that way. Talent wise, knowing what to do and the knowledge is all there, but I think it’s mental.”

Hicks was excited about the district win.

“It’s a great start to be 2-0 in district. That’s our goal and we’re taking it one at a time. Our first goal is to win district and then we’ll go from there on everything else.”

The Lady Tigers played an errorless game, out-hitting Tupelo 12-2 but left seven on base.
Tupelo left eight stranded and committed one error.

Lauren Calvert led at the plate for the Lady Tigers as she went 3-for-3 with one run, followed by Christa Brown, 3-for-4 with two runs and Meri Morgan Fortune, 2-for-4 with one double, one run and three RBIs (runs batted in).

The junior varsity won 5-1 in four innings.

In bottom of the first Haley Reid was hit by a pitch to get on base and scored on a Chresha Brown double. Mallory Myers walked and scored on Savannah Williams single, as did Brown to take a 3-0 lead.

Tupelo scored on an error in top of the fourth. Adding the last two runs in the bottom of the fourth were Sydney Morgan and Kaylen Ware.

Caroline Dickins picked up the win and Morgan Parker was credited with the save. Both were tabbed junior varsity players of the week by MaxPreps.

The junior varsity hosted Oxford last night in a double header.

The Lady Tigers will travel to Grenada for the Strike Out For Cancer (SOFC) game today starting at 5 p.m.

On Friday the team will travel to take on Southaven at noon and Saturday they will host Southaven at 1 p.m.