After tornado devastation, Amory baseball looks to continue promising season

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI) – When the Amory Panthers took a win over Center Hill last Thursday, they didn’t know it would be the last time they’d play at their own stadium. Just 24 hours later, an EF-3 tornado ripped through Amory and leveled the school’s baseball facility.

“It was heartbreaking,” senior Tyler Sledge said. “We spent so much time trying to build this place up and just seeing it all gone in a second. It hurts really bad knowing we’ll never play on this field again.”

Even though the tornado uprooted its stadium, Amory baseball isn’t going to let it uproot its season. The Panthers got off to a hot start, losing just one game. So the first step to continuing the promising season is clearing the field so they can at least have somewhere to practice.

People from just about every surrounding school in northeast Mississippi came out Thursday or plan to come out later to help with clean up.

“It just really shows what we’re all about here in Monroe County,” senior Corbin Gillentine said. “There’s no such thing as different schools when we’re out here. We’re all one.”

That support from other schools extends beyond cleaning up, too. Amory will have to play the rest of its season on the road.

“We’re just going to become road warriors. We’ve fought through adversity before. We’re definitely battle tested for the rest of the year,” Gillentine said.

Once the Panthers can find at least one full set of uniforms in the rubble, they’ll be set to get back out on the diamond.

“I think this will give us more of a motivation to play for us, play for the city, play for the town of Amory. I think it’s time to bring another one home,” senior Ty Hester said.