Petal gets a big region win at home in a big way.
The Panthers scored seven runs in the bottom of the first inning to highlight an 11-3 rout of Brandon in the Region 3-7A opener on Tuesday night.
Petal (11-6, 1-0 Region 3-7A) and Brandon (9-6, 0-1) will meet again at Brandon on Friday night at 7 p.m.
“That’s the things you need to do is set the tone early against a team that’s a really good team and a team that’s been at Trustmark the last two years,” said Petal coach Conner Douglas. “We played hard and good things happen and proud of the guys.”
Brandon took an early 1-0 lead in the top of first as Tre McQueen doubled to leadoff the game and scored on a single by Tre Adcox.
In the bottom half of the Petal responded with seven runs to take a 7-1 lead highlighted by a RBI triple from Easton Giger, a pair of RBI singles from Nathan Garner and Maddox Clark, along with a two-run double by Dawson Dykes and two-run single from Jordan Freeman.
The Panthers added a pair of runs off a fielding error to extend the lead to 9-1 in the second.
Petal stretched the lead to 10-1 in the fifth on a groundout by Fischer Howell. Brandon cut the lead to 10-2 in the sixth on a Hayes Carr RBI double. Petal added a run in the sixth on a fielder's choice to make 11-2, and Adcox added another RBI single in the seventh for Brandon to cut the Petal lead to 11-3.
Giger and Clark each had two hits to lead Petal. Cooper Smith (2-0) got the win on the mound for Petal lasting five innings scattering four hits, one run, three walks, and four strikeouts.
“Brandon had a chance to bust it open in the first, but we got out of it and our guys responded with a big inning and set the tone for the rest of night,” Douglas said. “Cooper pitched well and it’s big to start 1-0 against one of the teams that will be in the mix at the end.”
Adcox, McQueen, and Maddox Culpepper had two hits each for Brandon. Mitt Herrington took the loss on the mound for the Bulldogs.
“Mitt has pitched well for us all year, but tonight he got behind in the count all night and that’s one of the better offensive teams we’ve played this year and one of the offenses in the state and if you put them in plus counts it’s going to be really hard to get outs and win games,” said Brandon coach Daniel Best. “First inning is tough when you put yourself in a hole against a team like that and hard to get out of it. We got to better offensively and need to do that Friday.”
