By Myra Bean

In a district upset, the undefeated season of the South Panola Lady Tiger fastpitch softball team came to an end Tuesday night in a shutout.

In the first district game of the season, the Lady Tigers fell to the Tupelo Lady Golden Wave 3-0 in a tense matchup.

These two teams met last year in the district tournament and the Lady Tigers swept the series, winning the district, and ending Tupelo’s season. The Lady Golden Wave have played with a vengeance this year racking up an 8-0 record with this big win over the defending 5A state champion Lady Tigers.

Lady Tiger ace pitcher Whitney Kiihnl recorded her first loss in 18 games. The loss broke the 18-game win streak the Lady Tigers were enjoying.

South Panola was playing without starting shortstop Hillari Plummer and according to head coach Ashleigh Hicks, that was one of the problems plaguing the team. The Lady Tigers were credited with one error in the game that resulted in two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Also, South Panola has not played a complete game since February 29.

“It was like starting over,” Hicks said.

Weather caused the postponement of the district game against Starkville that was scheduled for March 4, and the game against Southaven last Thursday was called right after it got started because the lights went out. Due to snow over the weekend, the Tupelo Parks and Recreation high school softball tournament was cancelled.

“It was a bad day for us, but we will come back strong,” Hicks said.

The Lady Tigers will play in the Clarksdale tournament today after playing Cleveland in a rescheduled game Thursday afternoon. The score was not available at press time.

In the tournament, the Lady Tigers will play today at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday, they will play at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Monday, the Lady Tigers will host Columbus in a district matchup following the junior varsity game at 5 p.m.

Thursday, the Lady Tigers will host Horn Lake in non-district action. Horn Lake was the only team to defeat the Lady Tigers last year in regular season action 1-0. In the second game of that district series, South Panola returned the favor and defeated Horn Lake 4-1.