Playing on the newly dedicated Charles M. Sport Field in Luverne, the Georgiana Panthers fell to 0-2 on the season Monday as the Tigers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead en route to the 15-3 victory.

The Panthers cut the lead to five in the top half of the second inning, but Luverne answered the run to pull the lead back to six.

The Tigers added three more runs in the bottom of the third, but Georgiana once again cut the lead with two runs in the top half of the fourth before the Tigers pulled away with five runs in the bottom half of the inning.

With Monday's game being just the second game of the season for the Panthers due to rainouts and cancellations, Georgiana head coach Donald Ray Mixon said his team must get back to the basics in order to compete.

&#8220We haven't seen enough live pitching and that hurt us a lot today,” Mixon said following the game. &#8220We've got to practice, get into a repetition and keep working hard.”

Offensively for the Panthers, Terrence Whittle was the leading hitter with a 2-for-2 performance, followed by Kyle Nelson and Ronald Scott, who each finished 1-for-2 with a run scored.

&#8220Kyle Nelson and Terrence Whittle are both seniors and I have just been waiting for them to step up and I feel they did today,” Mixon said.

For the tigers, Montain May, Chad Free and Jacob Sexton each finished with two hits while Davis Lester blasted a homerun in the win.

Nelson picked up the loss for the Panthers.

The Panthers will return to action Friday as they play host to the Goshen Eagles at 3:30 p.m.