TEXARKANA - There wasn't much more Panola hurler Clayton McMillan could do to try to beat his old teammates here Saturday. He allowed five hits, gave up one walk and got beat 5-3 on three unearned runs.He might have tried talking coach Don Clinton into letting him hit somewhere down in the lineup. The Ponies had just seven total, only one among those batting in the five hole, or lower.

But the Bulldogs did put the loss in McMillan's corner, calling it sweet to beat the former Carthage High hurler they signed last year. Between freshman and sophomore seasons, Big Mac was allowed to transfer to Panola, where his season will end April 28, no doubt.

This loss, plus a 16-6 shellacking in the second game of the doubleheader, has no doubt done the Ponies in as a Region XIV Eastern Conference also-ran.

Panola shortstop Rickey Gardner made three errors behind Mac in the first two innings. One was fatal.  It came in the third after McMillan walked a batter and allowed a double after one was out. The southpaw chalked up a strikeout with four pitches and got the next two batters to ground to shortstop. Two boots and Texarkana had a 3-0 lead. Panola scratched back and was within 3-2 when Jared Wondra and Dustin McCandless doubled, Cody Jones walked and Taylor Davis doubled. An infield roller to the right side of the infield wasn't enough to bring Jones in for third and the rally ended with a fly ball out.
A double, a single and another double gave Texarkana two runs in the third before McMillan retired 11 of the final 13 batters he faced. One singled, the other walked. Neither did any damage.

The Ponies were pretty much spent, although Manny Kumar cracked a solo homer in the sixth to raise hopes.
Singles by Jared Wondra and Cody Jones in the seventh had hopes up, too, but Wondra tried to score on Davis grounder to third and was gunned down at the plate and another infield out ended the game.