The Chipley Tigers traveled to Marianna Tuesday to face the Holmes County Blue Devils in the first round of the District 2 Class 3A baseball tournament, and came away with a hard-fought 5-4 win. 

Chipley opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, loading the bases with no outs.  Jo Jo Taylor walked, Lance Bush followed with a single, and Josh Roberts singled.  Jared Kirkland's fielders choice scored Taylor for the Tigers' first run. 

Ryan Brown took the mound for Chipley in the bottom of the first.  Holmes County answered with a run of their own as Aaron Mollot's sacrifice fly scored Jeremy McGowan to tie the score at 1-1. 

In the third the Tigers struck for another run after a lead-off double from Taylor.  Robert's one-out double drove in Taylor to put Chipley up 2-1. 

The Blue Devils countered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third.  Singles by McGowan and Ty Short, followed by a walk to Brad White, loaded the bases.  Mollet singled to put Holmes County up 3-2.  Zac Hodges' fielders choice plated the Devils third run of the inning to make the score 4-2. 

Chipley got one of the runs back in the fourth after Brown reached on an error and Blake Obert was hit by a pitch.  Brown advanced to third on fielders choice and scored on a wild pitch to close the gap to 4-3. 

Karsten Whitson relieved Brown with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning.  Brown surrendered five hits, four runs (three earned), one walk, and one strikeout.  Whitson pitched three and two-thirds, surrendering one hit while striking out eight hitters. 

The Tigers scored the final two runs in the sixth.  Brown led off the inning with a single.  Whitson followed with a bunt single.  Phillip Brininger's bunt was mishandled at third base and allowed both Brown and Whitson to score the go-ahead runs. 

Chipley improved its record to 17-8 on the year, and advanced to the championship game to be played in Marianna versus the MHS Bulldogs at 7 p.m. on Thursday.