EMCC Lions pick up home baseball doubleheader split with division foe Itawamba

SCOOBA – Smokey Ethridge's complete-game victory and Austin Braddock's game-winning home run lifted the East Mississippi Community College baseball team to a 3-2, game-one victory and earn a doubleheader split with Itawamba Community College Saturday afternoon at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field.  ICC then exploded for 21 hits, including four home runs and seven doubles, to claim a lop-sided 18-1 triumph over the Lions in the nightcap.

In the opener, the two teams traded solo runs in the third inning.  Brent Younger's solo home run for Itawamba was neutralized by Colton Caver's two-out, run-scoring double.

EMCC took a brief 2-1 lead by scoring an unearned run in the fourth.  The score quickly became tied again on Jacob Shempert's solo home run to lead off the fifth inning.

With Ethridge and ICC's Ben Hudspeth engaged in a classic pitching duel, Braddock provided the winning margin with a lead-off homer to right-center field in the sixth.  The solo blast – his fourth of the year - tied the former Heritage Academy product with Trent Waddell for the club lead.

However, the drama was not over, as the visitors threatened in the top of the seventh.  Austin Welch led off the frame with a single and was bunted over to second.  After Shempert was intentionally walked, pinch-hitter Drew Wheeler singled to load the bases with one out.  Younger's sharply hit grounder up the middle was gloved by EMCC shortstop Drew Standland, who flipped the ball to Philip Tice at second to begin the game-ending double play.

In his second straight complete-game pitching performance, Ethridge allowed six hits over seven innings with four strikeouts and only one walk.  The former West Lauderdale standout improved to 4-1 on the season with his 10^th career collegiate victory.

The second contest also began as a low-scoring affair with the visitors pushing across a pair of runs in the third and EMCC coming back with an unearned tally in the fourth.

Itawamba's bats then began to catch fire over the latter innings as the Lions depleted their bullpen.  With eight different pitchers taking the hill for EMCC in the contest, the Indians pounded out 15 hits, including four home runs, over the final three innings.  A five-run fifth inning was followed by three more scores in the sixth and eight additional tallies in the seventh.

Meanwhile, ICC sophomore left-hander Dylan Earnest held the Lions hitless until Waddell's one-out single in the sixth broke up the no-hit bid.  Ben Aldridge worked a perfect seventh inning in relief, as the Itawamba tandem struck out 10 EMCC batters during the combined one-hit effort.

Five Itawamba players had multiple-hit outings in game two, highlighted by Jake Smith's 5-for-5 showing and Shempert's 4-for-5 effort.  Smith, from New Hope High School, had three doubles, a solo homer, four runs batted in and four runs scored, while Shempert, an Oak Hill Academy product, added a pair of doubles and a three-run round-tripper.

Coach Chris Rose's EMCC Lions, now 16-18 overall and 6-8 in the MACJC's North Division, conclude their current homestand by entertaining Northeast Mississippi Community College in a 4 p.m. Tuesday doubleheader on the Scooba campus.