Yazoo County’s Panthers completed their conference record on Tuesday with a 13-3 win over Humphreys County to give them a perfect 10-0 record in the conference for the season.
The win gave them a 12-6 record on the year.
According to Yazoo County head baseball coach Corbin Ellis, the undefeated district record was just one goal of many for the season.
“Finishing district play 10-0 was another of our goals this season and we checked that one off the list tonight,” Ellis said.
The Panthers came out ready to play, scoring four runs in the first inning to take an early 4-0 lead.
Humphreys County showed some life in the top of the second inning.
The Cowboys put up three runs to cut the lead to 4-3.
The Panthers struck back with two more runs in the bottom of the inning
Yazoo County added a run in the third and a run in the fourth to push their lead to 8-3, but the game was still a battle to that point.
They needed a big inning to put it away.
The fifth inning of games has been a cursed time for Yazoo County’s offense all season, so Ellis decided to try a little voodoo and rub some dirt on the bats.
It worked.
The Panthers scored five runs to put the game away 13-3.
Ellis believes he may have found a new superstition.
“The fifth inning has been our nemesis this year,” Ellis said. “We had been held scoreless in the fifth inning all year. We finally broke that tonight when we scored five in the bottom half to end the game. I was just joking around with the kids and told them our bats were hurting, so I picked up some dirt and rubbed some dirt on the bats. Five singles and a double later we had scored five runs and broke the fifth inning curse. Looks like I'll be needing a bucket of dirt in the dugout with me now.”
Ethan Hill improved to 3-0 with the win on the mound. He only allowed two hits with three walks and six strikeouts.
Tanner Evilsizor went 2-for-3 with a double, single, two RBIs, and a run scored.
Andrew Edwards went 3-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored.
Dontrell Green went 2-for-3 with a single, a double, an RBI, and a run scored.
Cameron Shaffer went 1-for-2 with a single and two runs scored.
Trevor Leal went 1-for-2 with a double, an RBI, and two runs scored.
Ben Luckett had a nice day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a sac fly, two singles, two RBIs, and a run scored.
Peyton Thrasher went 1-for-2 with a single, two RBIs, and two runs scored.
David Michael Jones did his job at the plate by hitting two sacrifice fly balls for two RBIs.
Yazoo County’s playoff run will begin next weekend against the winner of Kossuth and Nettleton.a
