By Brad Greer

The North Delta Green Wave got the  2011 baseball season off to a rousing start with an 11-4 romp over Lee Academy Monday afternoon in the Magnolia Heights tournament.

Austin Gant and John Cody Dalrymple rapped out three hits each to lead North Delta’s 13-hit attack. South Panola transfer Luke Latham drove in three runs as the Green Wave jumped to a 7-0 lead after four innings.

Jim Tom Copeland picked up the win on the mound by pitching three scoreless innings. The senior right-hander surrendered two hits and walked two while striking out four batters on the night.

Junior Ethan Waldrip fanned two batters in one inning of work while William Dean walked two and gave up two runs on no hits.

Blake Snyder gave up a pair of runs (one earned) in 1.1 innings on the hill. Junior Bailey Guckert worked a scoreless seventh inning by fanning the final two batters of the game.

Guckert led off the game in the top of the first, getting hit by a pitch and  later scoring on a RBI ground out by Latham to give North Delta a 1-0 lead. The Wave added another run in the second as Derrick Shawn  reached on an one-out walk before advancing to second on a stolen base. Two batters later, Gant blooped a single into center to drive in Shawn for the second run of the game.

Lee (0-1) threatened to tie the game in the bottom of the frame by putting runners on second and third with two outs, but Copeland struck out the number nine batter to retire the side.

North Delta put the game away in the fourth by plating five runs on six hits to take a 7-0 lead. Ethan Taylor led off with a triple then scored on Michael Magee’s single up the middle. Shawn then drove in Magee with a triple to right that extended the lead, 4-0.

One batter later, Gant picked up his second RBI of the game with another bloop single that chased home Shawn.

Dalrymple sliced a one-out double into right to keep the North Delta rally going. After Guckert walked to load the bases, Latham delivered a two-run single that drove in  Gant and Dalrymple.

Three straight singles by Snider, Gant and Dalrymple followed by Dunlap’s pinch-hit two-run double extended North Delta’s lead to 10-0 in the top of the fifth. Lee got on the board in the bottom half of the inning by pushing across three runs on one hit and one Green Wave error.

Each team plated runs in the sixth as Magee reached on a hit-by-pitch then later scored on a wild pitch to end the scoring for North Delta. Both teams left six runners on base.

North Delta postponed the Tunica game until March 17 at 12 and 2 p.m. and will play Magnolia Heights today at 6 p.m. in Senatobia.