D’IBERVILLE -Brookhaven left-hander Paxton King breezed throughthe first five innings, allowing two D’Iberville base runners toreach scoring position. His pickoff move was nails. He kept theball down in the strikezone.

Then, slowly, surely, the Warriors got back in the game. And inthe bottom of the seventh, D’Iberville made it happen, scratchingout four runs to stun the Panthers 5-4 on Thursday night in theopening game of their Class 4A state playoff series.

Clayton Seymour, the winning pitcher, drove in the winning runwith one out in the seventh. Seymour slapped an infield single infront of the plate, leaving Brookhaven catcher Mitch Pappas withouta play, as the Warriors’ Matt Neal scampered home to end it.

D’Iberville improved to 22-11 and will try to complete the sweepin the best-of-three series tonight in Brookhaven. Game time is 6p.m. on Moyer Field.

The Panthers dropped to 20-12 with the defeat.

Seymour’s catcher, Jarrod Cannette, was giving his teammate thebusiness about his game-winning hit covering all of about 40 feetdown the third-base

line.

“If the wind wasn’t coming in,” Cannette said, “it might havehad a chance (to clear the fence).”

D’Iberville coach Eddie Whitehead was a bit more pragmatic. “Wewere fortunate to win, but we’ll take it,” he said. “We hung inthere and came together at the end.”

King didn’t walk a batter until the seventh, which hadBrookhaven coach Randy Spring wondering about what happened when itwas over. The Warriors scored on a passed ball before Neal drove intwo runs with a bloop double over a drawn-in Brookhaven infield.Two intentional walks loaded the bases and set the stage forSeymour’s game-winning hit.

“I thought the strike zone changed the last couple innings,”Spring said. “(King) didn’t get that bad, all of a sudden. Itdefinitely gives them some momentum, and defensively, there were acouple plays we could have made in the seventh. They got a big wintonight.”

King allowed 5 hits. He fanned 5 and walked 6, including 2intentional. Three of the runs were earned.

Clayton (8-2) allowed five hits while striking out six. Kinggave up six hits, half of them in the seventh.

The Panthers were powered by Bud Britt’s 2-run. third-inninghome. Britt and King both had 2 hits in the loss. Collecting asingle was R.J. Jenkins.

Left-hander Zach Toney gets the call for the Warriors tonightwhile Spring will counter with senior right-hander Cole Newell. AnOle Brook victory will send the series back to D’Iberville Saturdayfor a 2 p.m. showdown.

Division 6-4A champion Terry beat Division 7-4A runner-upVancleave 8-4 last night. Terry (22-8) plays at Vancleave (16-12)tonight. A third game, if necessary, would be played Saturday atTerry.