By Brad Greer

Three years ago, South Panola and Horn Lake engaged in a 10-inning marathon at the Oxford Spring Break tournament that the Tigers ultimately won 4-3. Wednesday night, the two teams met again at the same venue and went toe-to-toe in yet another barn-burner—but this time the results were different.

With the score deadlocked 8-8 in the bottom of the eighth, Trey Rice scored on an error to give Horn Lake a 9-8 victory.

Rice led off the inning by drawing a walk off Tiger reliever Taylor Karr. Justin Pounders followed with a bunt that Karr threw past first base into right field to put runners on second and third. After Josh Cooley was intentionally walked to load the bases, Chris Landrum hit a chopper to shortstop Landon Fullilove who fired a strike to home plate but the ball was dropped at home allowing Rice to score the winning run.

South Panola (8-4) rebounded from a 7-2 deficit to score two runs in the fourth and four more in the sixth to take an 8-7 lead before the Eagles tied the contest with a run in the bottom of the sixth to send the game into extra innings.

Landrip picked up the win in relief for Horn Lake (5-8) while Karr suffered to loss for the Tigers.

Tays Hardy started the sixth inning rally with a one-out walk. Taylor Meek, Blake Darby and Epps followed with singles before Will Dickins drew a bases loaded walk to tie the game at seven. Leadoff batter Chris Townsend then lifted a sacrifice fly to score courtesy runner Matt Jones from third.

Horn Lake jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first off South Panola  starting pitcher Meek before adding four runs off four Tiger errors in the second for a 6-1 lead. South Panola committed seven errors on the night while leaving 16 runners on base including the bases loaded in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings. Both teams traded runs in the third to make the score 7-2 before the Tigers pushed across a pair of runs in the fourth.

Morgan Tubbs tossed a solid 4.2 innings of middle relief for South Panola by giving up two runs on five hits and fanning four batters. Whitten, Meek and Darby led the Tigers with two singles each. Epps, Dickins and Horne added singles.

SP 11, Marshall Academy 3

South Panola picked up an 11-3 win over Marshall Academy in five innings earlier in the day.
Whitten drove in four runs for the Tigers with a two-run homerun and a two-RBI single. The junior first baseman also delivered a double in the fifth. Hardy chipped in with a pair of singles while Townsend added a double and single and scored two runs. Preston Blair, Epps, Hunter Ivy and Dickins contributed with singles.

Ivy recorded his first pitching win of the year by giving up three runs on four hits while fanning three and walking two over four innings. Rip Kirk wrapped up the game with a scoreless fifth inning.

South Panola opens Region 2-6A play at home Tuesday night against Tupelo at 4 and 6 p.m.