CHULA — It is not often a baseball team can score five runs in the first inning and be rusty. But that is the way Tiftarea Academy Panther baseball coach Marvin Barton felt about his team after the Panthers were defeated 12-10 by the Sherwood Christian Academy Eagles here Monday afternoon.

Tiftarea had a 5-1 lead after the first inning, but the Eagles came back by scoring one run in the second, four in the third, one in the fifth, three in the sixth and two in the seventh.

“We haven’t played much in awhile, because of spring break,” said Barton. “We have had two extensive layovers and it has hurt us.”

The Panthers did start out strong as Justin Burke had a two-run homer in the first. Chase Ward, Buck White and Josh Haynes all had RBI singles in the frame, as well.

After the four runs in the third, Sherwood had a 6-5 lead at the end of three innings.

The Eagles extended the lead to 7-5 with one run in the top of the fifth.

Tiftarea then came back with another five runs, all coming in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Ward, Mikey Arena, Haynes and Clint Holley all had RBI singles in the frame. The other run came in with Haynes scored on a passed ball.

At that time in the game, Tiftarea’s Ward had pitched the first three innings, while Haynes had pitched the fourth and fifth. However Haynes could not get out of the sixth as he gave up three runs. That forced Barton to bring Will Smith into the game.

“I had wanted to use a lot of pitchers today to get them some work,” said Barton. “We just have to work on our walks, I bet 70 percent of the runs we give up come off of walks.”

The three-run sixth allowed Sherwood to tie the game. The Eagles the got two runs in the seventh to get the win.

Smith loaded the bases with no one out. Matthew Souter came in to relieve and allowed two runs, but got out with no further damage being done.

“It was a roller coaster-type of a game. I was proud of the way we battled back, but you have to give them credit too, because they battled back,” said Barton.

Ward and Chance Benson each had two hits in the game to lead Tiftarea at the plate.

Tiftarea will be at SGA today for a Region 3-AA contest.