By Brad Greer

Less than a month after completing the most successful baseball season in school history, the South Panola Tigers returned to the diamond Tuesday afternoon to kickoff an 18-game Summer league schedule by taking on Water Valley in a doubleheader at Tiger Park.

The first game of the twinbill ended in a 9-9 tie after seven innings of play as Water Valley scored three runs with two outs in the top of the seventh to erase a 9-6 Tiger lead. South Panola answered in the nightcap by taking a 6-1 victory in a five-inning affair.

In the opening contest, Water Valley took 1-0 lead in the top of the first only to have the Tigers answer with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame on a Tays Hardy two-run double that drove in Andrew Horne and Preston Blair. Hardy would later score on a delayed steal to account for the last run.

Water Valley tied the game at three in the third on Chris Wilson’s two-run single that scored Austin Hodge and Taylor King. The game would not stay tied for long however as the Tigers plated four runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 7-3 lead as Chance Whitten delivered the big blow with a bases loaded triple.

The Blue Devils closed the margin to 7-5 in the fourth with a pair of runs on four hits. South Panola tacked on their last two runs in the bottom half of the inning on consecutive doubles by Horne and Taylor Meek with Blair following with a RBI single.

Water Valley added one run in the fifth and three more in the seventh to tie the game at nine. Tyler Kimzey led the Blue Devils with three hits as the visitors out-hit the home team 12-6 in the contest. Blake Darby, Hunter Ivy, Will Daughtery and Meek all saw time on the mound for the Tigers.

South Panola bounced back to take the second game as Will Dickins led the Tiger offense with a two-run inside-the-park homerun to spark a four-run fourth inning that blew open a 2-1 game. Dickins added a RBI triple in the second to score DaShawn Lindsey that gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Matt Jones drove in a pair of runs with a sacrifice fly in the second and a double in the fourth to drive in Lane Massey.

Massey, Taylor Karr and Bobby Epps held Water Valley to one unearned run on three hits over five innings. The trio combined for five strikeouts while walking only one batter. Whitten, Ivy, Massey and Lindsey all provided singles in the winning effort as the Tigers collected seven hits in the game.

The two teams will meet each other today at Water Valley for two games starting at 4 p.m. South Panola will then visit Lafayette County Monday before returning home Tuesday to take on Oxford at 4 & 6 p.m.