By Brad Greer

The South Panola Tiger baseball team halted a modest two-game losing streak by posting three wins over the weekend.

The Tigers recorded a pair of shutouts Saturday by defeating Clarksdale 10-0 in five innings before blasting West Tallahatchie 18-0 in three innings later that afternoon. South Panola also downed Cleveland 10-5 Friday night.

Sophomore Rip Kirk picked up his first pitching win of the season by giving up one hit in three innings while striking out five batters in the victory over Clarksdale. Senior Will Dickins worked the final two innings in relief by surrendering three hits and fanning four.

South Panola (4-2) collected seven hits in the game while scoring four runs in the second and five more in the third to put the game away.

Dashawn Lindsay got the Tigers on the board in the bottom of the first by scoring Andrew Horne’s sacrifice fly in center.

Taylor Meek led off the second inning by reaching first on an error, then scored on an RBI by Tays Hardy. Preston Blair then drew a two-out walk before leadoff hitter Chris Townsend stroked a single up the middle to plate a pair of runs to give the Tigers a 4-0 lead. Lindsay then followed with his second single of the game to drive in Townsend.

Chance Whitten and Meek led off the bottom of the third with back-to-back doubles. Hardy then slapped a two-run single to plate both runners. Bobby Epps reached on an error and Blake Darby was hit by a pitch before an out was recorded.

Townsend then lifted a sacrifice fly to right that scored Hardy to increase the Tiger lead to 8-0. Darby and courtesy runner Houston Boothe both scored on an error to finish the scoring.

Hardy and Lindsay each recorded two singles to lead South Panola at the plate.

The Tiger junior varsity squad was also victorious with a 12-0 win over the Wildcats.

Landon Fullilove drove in four runs with a pair of doubles while J. C. Harper, Scott Taylor and Tristan Tudor added doubles. Hays Hudson, Zach Bolen, Scotty Daughtery and Kirk registered singles in the victory.

Tyler Tubbs struck out six batters in two innings to record the pitching win. Harper also tossed two inning of relief while fanning four batters. Bolen added one inning of relief work.

South Panola plated 15 runs in the bottom of the first inning and three more in the second in their romp over West Tallahatchie.

Horne led the offensive assault with a triple and single while Hardy added a pair of doubles as the Tigers batted around three times in the first inning.

Whitten highlighted the frame with a two-run homerun. Adam Cooks added an RBI single in the second while Matt Jones delivered a pinch-hit double to drive in the final two runs.

Meek worked two inning on the mound to pick up the win while Epps struck out the side in the third to end the game.

South Panola 10, Cleveland 5

The Tigers scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth to break open a scoreless game Friday night against the Wildcats.

Townsend registered South Panola’s  first hit of the game off Cleveland’s starting pitcher, Andrew Brey, to start the uprising. Horne then laid down a perfect bunt single to put runners at first and second with no outs.

After an Epps walk to load the bases, Lindsay doubled to drive in two runs. Hardy and Meek followed with run-producing singles to give the Tigers a 5-0 cushion.

Meek’s two-run double and Epps’ RBI single coupled with a pair of errors in the fifth accounted for four runs to make the score 9-1.

Cleveland tallied four runs in top off the sixth on a three-run double by Brandon Cummings to close the margin to 9-5. South Panola added an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth to close out the scoring.

Whitten (2-0) pitched four innings of one-hit ball to pick up the win as the junior right-hander walked four and struck out five. Matt Jones saw his first varsity action on the mound with five strikeouts in two innings of relief work while Taylor Karr retired all three batters he faced in the seventh.

South Panola traveled to Cleveland last night in a game that was originally scheduled for tonight. The Tigers will then travel to Senatobia Friday night.