EMCC Lions sweep at Southwest Mississippi, 9-2 and 7-3, to successfully open MACJC baseball slate

SUMMIT – The East Mississippi Community College baseball team successfully opened conference play Saturday afternoon with a road doubleheader sweep over Southwest Mississippi Community College.  The visiting Lions totaled 26 hits on the day en route to their 9-2, 7-3 sweep over the Bears.

In the scheduled nine-inning opener, EMCC had a season-high 16 hits with six different Lion batters enjoying multiple-hit outings.  Adding 10 hits in the nightcap, the Lions managed to have eight of nine starting hitters with at least one hit during each contest against SMCC.

After owning a slim 2-1 lead through the first four innings of game one, the visitors scored seven runs over the next three frames to provide all the run support starting pitcher J'Daylin Jackson would need to improve his season record to 4-0 and career EMCC mark to 12-1.  Run-scoring singles by Dylan Vuncannon and Taylor Stafford in the fifth would be followed by JoVaughn McNabb's RBI single a frame later to make it a 5-1 contest.

Batting through the order in the seventh would produce four more runs for the Lions.  Following Corley Reynolds' bases-loaded single and a sacrifice fly by Drew Standland, McNabb added a two-out, two-run single to highlight his 3-for-5 effort at the plate. 

Joining McNabb with three hits in the opener was Vuncannon, while Standland, Stafford, Kyle Liberto and Emil Ellis all had two hits apiece for the Lions.

Jackson, from Greenville's St. Joseph Catholic School, allowed just one run and scattered seven hits, while fanning two and walking a pair, over 6.2 innings of work.  Jake Bracewell and Cody Allsup finished up the contest on the mound for EMCC.

Like the opener, the seven-inning nightcap proved to be a close contest during the initial frames.  EMCC's early 3-1 lead dissipated in the fifth when the Bears knotted the score with the help of some wildness by Lion pitchers.

The visitors recovered quickly, however, by going through the batting order in their next at-bat.  With Stafford leading off the sixth with his third single of the game and fifth hit of the afternoon, the Lions proceeded to score four times in the inning.  Chris McCullough's RBI single was followed later by a bases-loaded walk to Vuncannon and a two-out, two-run single by David Pimentel.

With freshman right-hander JC Redden working the first four innings in a no-decision outing, five Lion hurlers combined to allow just four hits in game two.  Freshman Ryan Rigby, of Kosciusko, picked up his first collegiate win in relief, while Jay Booth closed things out in the seventh.

Improving to 8-6 overall and 2-0 within the MACJC, head coach Chris Rose's EMCC Lions next travel to Moorhead for a scheduled Wednesday doubleheader against Mississippi Delta Community College.