South Medford senior Bennett Thompson belted his first home run of the spring and that ignited a five-run frame to help carry the host Panthers to a 10-1 triumph over Ashland at Harry & David Field Tuesday.

Thompson’s home run followed a single by Cameron Sewell and allowed South Medford (5-1) to strike first in the bottom of the third inning against the Grizzlies (1-5).

“That kind of woke up our offense up for sure,” said South Medford coach Josh Moody of Thompson’s low-liner over the fence. “It was 0-0 and their guy on the mound (Cruz Dreiling) was throwing three pitches for strikes so we kind of needed something to get us going.”

Energized by the homer, the Panthers used a double by Tanner Douglas and an RBI single by Elijah Havey to keep things going in the third. After Kaleb Long walked, Havey came home to score on a double steal and throwing error.

Tosh Stumpenhaus then capped the outburst with an RBI double to put South Medford ahead to stay at 5-0.

It was 6-0 when Ashland’s Tyadi Williams managed a one-out single against reliever Kyle Cope and later advanced to third on a two-out double by Jackson Kemper. Williams then broke Ashland’s 23-inning scoring drought when he came home on a wild pitch.

The Panthers put the game away in the bottom of the sixth with four more runs, highlighted by a three-run triple from Stumpenhaus, who finished a home run short of the cycle by going 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

“We’ve got a really young team and we’re letting them get their opportunities early on in the season to try and figure out who we’re going to go with down the stretch, and he certainly made a case for us penciling him in for the next game,” Moody said of the breakout effort by the sophomore.

Thompson went 2-for-3 with three runs and two RBIs, Sewell 2-for-4 with one run and Douglas 3-for-4 with two runs and one RBI for South Medford.

Junior pitcher Carson Joe allowed one hit in five shutout innings for the Panthers, striking out six with two walks.

South Medford will next play host to North Medford at Harry & David Field for a doubleheader that begins at noon Saturday.

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Dreiling, Ransweiler (3), Bloodworth (6) and Kemper; Joe, Cope (6) and Thompson. W — Joe (2-0). L — Dreiling. 2B — A: Kemper; SM: Stumpenhaus, Douglas. 3B — SM: Stumpenhaus. HR — SM: Thompson (1).

GRANTS PASS 12, EAGLE POINT 2, 5 inn.: At Grants Pass, Troy Osborne had four hits and Tahalo Johnson drove in four runs for Grants Pass in the SOC contest.

The Cavemen (5-2) scored eight runs in the bottom of the first inning to take control.

Osborne was 4-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs, and Johnson was 2-for-4 with a triple and a run.

Grants Pass’ Jett Hood was 2-for-3 with three runs, Ashton Durler was 2-for-2 with three RBIs and two runs and Logan Vinyard was 2-for-3.

Eagle Point was held to three hits, singles by Dawson Foulon, Jace Ellis and Luca Fazio.

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Uribe, Fazio (1) and Meade; Haven, Falk (5), Durler (5) and Osborne. W — Haven. L — Uribe. 2B — GP: Hood, Osborne, Durler. 3B — GP: Johnson.

ST. MARY’S 6, CASCADE CHRISTIAN 3: St. Mary’s struck for four of its 11 hits in a seventh-inning surge that broke a 3-all tie and upended host Cascade Christian at U.S. Cellular Community Park.

Eli Haynes sparked the breakout frame with a leadoff single and Beau Aldrich supplied an RBI double before St. Mary’s (3-4) also got run-scoring singles from Grant Russo and Alan Gomez.

Aldrich and Sam Shunk each went 3-for-4, with Aldrich also notching a two-run double in the fifth inning. Ean Lawrence went 2-for-4 with one RBI and Haynes also finished 2-for-3.

Owen Thompson belted a pair of doubles for Cascade Christian (3-4) and finished 2-for-3. Sam Martin had an RBI double in the second inning.

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Aldrich, Johnson (4) and Lawrence, Aldrich (4); Martin, Reece (3), A. Moody (6) and Thompson. W — Johnson. L — A. Moody. 2B — SM: Aldrich 2, Shunk; CC: Martin, Thompson 2.

ROGUE RIVER 4, NORTH LAKE 0: At Silver Lake, pitchers Caden Tognoni and Wyatt Stillwagner limited North Lake to three hits in the shutout, upping Rogue River’s record to 5-2.

Tognoni allowed one hit, struck out 10 and walked four in his five innings, earning the win.

The Chieftains made the most of their two hits. Ethan Devish had a hit and drove in two runs, and Perrin Nelson had the other hit as Rogue River won its third straight game.

North Lake dropped to 1-3.

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Tognoni, Stillwagner (6) and Smith. Cooper, Joy (7) and Joy. W — Tognoni. L — Cooper.