Panthers clean up nicely against Southeast Whitfield

Teenagers, especially teenage boys, are known to be a little messy from time to time and the Ridgeland Panthers baseball team got a little lesson in tidiness this past week.

After leaving their locker room in a state of disarray, head coach Scott Harden ordered his team to clean up their mess and took away locker room privileges, but did offer them a way back in - sweep Southeast.

And that’s exactly what they did.

After a home win over the Raiders last Thursday, the Panthers swept both ends of a twinbill in Dalton on Friday night to get right back in the thick of the Region 6-AAAA standings.

Ridgeland 10, Southeast 3

The Panthers scored three times in the bottom of the first and third innings and added two runs in both the fourth and sixth as they beat the visiting Raiders on Thursday.

Ellis Johnson threw six innings to get the win. He finished with five strikeouts. Tyler Crawford had three singles, while Riley Harrison doubled twice and scored three runs. Tanner Hill had a single and a double and also scored three times.

Ridgeland 17, Southeast 6

Ridgeland took an early 6-0 lead in the opener. Crawford had a two-run single in the top of the first and launched a three-run moonshot in the top of the third. Sources have not been able to confirm where or even if the ball ever landed.

Southeast battled back to cut the deficit to 9-6 going into the top of the seventh, but Ridgeland would pound out eight more runs in the inning to put the game on ice.

Shawn Wilson had three hits and drew a walk while scoring twice in the victory. Dylan Wooten had two doubles and an RBI. Harrison added a pair of hits and Hill tripled, scored three runs and struck out seven batters to get the win.

Ridgeland 6, Southeast 3

In the nightcap, Wooten belted a two-run homer in the top of the first inning to give the Panthers an early lead. Southeast would rally to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth, but Ridgeland would score four unanswered runs to close it out.

Wooten had a double in the fourth and scored on an RBI-double by Hill one batter later. Ridgeland would score two in the inning and added solo runs in the fifth and sixth.

Jacob Stephens got the win in relief of starter Seth Pitts. The duo allowed just five hits in Game 2. Harrison had three hits in the game and drove in a run, while Jordan Tucker delivered big hits in both games to get his bat back on track.

Ridgeland (6-5, 5-4) will enjoy an open week before getting back to action on April 3 at LaFayette in the first of a three-game series.