By Brad Greer
Hernando’s Ian Painter was not perfect by any means as he took the pitching mound Friday against South Panola. But then again he did not have to be as his teammates made his job look easy as the visiting Tigers pounded South Panola 11-1 in six innings.

With the victory Hernando remains tied with Tupelo atop the division standing with a 3-1 mark and 10-8 overall. South Panola meanwhile fell to 8-6 and 1-3 in district play.
Hernando put the game away early with three runs in the first and four more in the second to take a 7-0 lead.

Aaron Smith led off the game with an infield single before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt by Reese Lara. After Will Craft walked on a popup for out number two, Dalton Smith smashed a double past a diving Dashawn Lindsay in center to drive in both runners. Keith Stepter followed with an RBI single up the middle to plate Smith.

South Panola scored its lone run in bottom half of the first as Lindsay walked, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Landon Fullilove and later raced home on a wild pitch
Hernando chased South Panola starting pitcher Hunter Ivy in the second with four hits including three straight bunt singles. Ivy faced only 11 batters while taking the loss by giving up seven runs on six hits and walking two batters. Chase Durham surrendered four runs on four hits in 3.1 innings of relief before Macen McGee wrapped up the game with .2 innings.

Painter tossed a one-hitter despite walking five but struck out five batters. Rip Kirk broke up the no-hit bit with a fifth inning single.

Hernando added to its lead in the fifth with a two-run single by Aaron Smith then closed out the scoring with a another pair of runs in the sixth on back-to-back singles from Dalton Smith and Stepter.

South Panola visits Grenada today at 6 p.m. in a district matchup.