EMCC Lions swept at Northeast Mississippi, 3-2 and 12-2, in division baseball twin bill
Slowed by eight errors on the afternoon, the visiting Lions of East Mississippi Community College were swept by Northeast Mississippi Community College in Saturday afternoon MACJC North Division baseball action at Harold T. White Field. Following a tough 3-2 setback in eight innings during the opener, EMCC was run-ruled 12-2 in the five-inning nightcap.
BOONEVILLE – Slowed by eight errors on the afternoon, the visiting Lions of East Mississippi Community College were swept by Northeast Mississippi Community College in Saturday afternoon MACJC North Division baseball action at Harold T. White Field. Following a tough 3-2 setback in eight innings during the opener, EMCC was run-ruled 12-2 in the five-inning nightcap.
The afternoon began in fine fashion for the visitors. In the first inning of play, singles by Trent Waddell and Tyler Odom set the table for Austin Braddock's two-out, two-run single to give the Lions an early 2-0 lead.
The score stayed that way until the Tigers reached Odom and middle reliever KC Abney for a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth to knot the score at 2-2. The big hit in the inning for the home team was Josh Mills' run-scoring double.
Following their productive two-run first inning with four hits, the Lion bats pretty much went silent the rest of the way in the opener. After sending seven batters to the plate in the first frame, EMCC could only manage three base runners from the second inning on against Northeast pitching.
After the Lions went quietly in the top of the extra frame, Will Robertson opened the bottom of the eighth with a base hit. EMCC reliever Brock McKnight (3-2) then mishandled Justin Neal's ensuing sacrifice bunt attempt for the Lions' third error of the opener. Following back-to-back outs and an intentional walk to Tanner McCollum to load the bases, Ethan Estes got his third hit of the game with a two-out, walk-off single.
In the nightcap, the home-standing Tigers only managed one more hit (9-8) than EMCC, but five more Lion miscues and two big innings by Northeast spelled doom for the visitors.
The Tigers grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Robertson's RBI ground out that plated Mills, who had tripled. After the Lions moved ahead 2-1 in the third on the strength of singles by Waddell, Odom and Philip Tice, EMCC game two starter Tyler Jones (1-2) ran into major one-out trouble in the bottom half of the third. With the inning prolonged by a pair of infield errors, the Tigers batted around in scoring six times on four hits, two walks and a hit by pitch to take a 7-2 advantage.
Taking advantage of three more EMCC errors over the final two frames, Northeast banged out four more singles in the fifth to push across the needed five runs to end the run-ruled nightcap with two outs.
Offensively after managing only five hits in the opener, the Lions had eight hits in game two with Waddell, Odom and Colton Caver all singling twice in the nightcap. Braddock had two of EMCC's five hits in the first contest.
Improving to 9-7 overall and 3-1 within the division, the winning pitchers for the Northeast Tigers on Saturday were Jonathan Morrison (1-0) in the extra-inning opener and David Gibson (3-0) in the nightcap.
Coach Chris Rose's EMCC Lions, 11-13 overall and 1-3 in division play after playing their first two division doubleheaders on the road, return home to entertain the Trojans of Mississippi Delta Community College in a 4 p.m. Wednesday twin bill at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.