No. 19 EMCC Lions extend win streak to eight consecutive games with 8-2, 8-6 home baseball sweep over Co-Lin

SCOOBA – The 19^th-ranked East Mississippi Community College Lions extended their current winning streak to eight consecutive games with an 8-2, 8-6 home baseball doubleheader sweep over Copiah-Lincoln Community College Friday evening at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field. 

In the midst of their current four-date homestand, the EMCC Lions improved to 14-6 overall and a perfect 8-0 within the conference with their fourth straight doubleheader sweep in Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) play.

After EMCC went up 1-0 in the second when Emil Ellis was rewarded for his lead-off double by later scoring on a wild pitch by Co-Lin starter Cole Langdon, the Wolfpack took its only lead of the game in the top of the third.  Consecutive two-out singles by Jordan Antley and Jeremy Moore were preceded by Adrian Brown's two-run double down the left-field line off Lion starting pitcher Andrew Crane. 

The Lions reclaimed the lead in the fourth on a Drew Standland RBI single after Ellis was hit by a pitch and then advanced around the bases on a hit, wild pitch and ultimately scoring on a passed ball to make the score 3-2 in favor of the home team.

As Crane got into a groove on the mound through the middle innings, EMCC added four runs in the sixth to take command of the opening game.  Highlighting the inning were Dylan Vuncannon's two-run single followed by David Pimentel's RBI single.  The Lions' final tally of the contest came on JoVaughn McNabb's first collegiate home run to lead off the eighth inning.

As a team in the scheduled nine-inning opener, eight of EMCC's starting batters hit safely with Vuncannon, McNabb and Standland leading the 11-hit team effort with two hits apiece.

Crane, a sophomore right-hander from Pascagoula, scattered seven hits over eight innings, while striking out 11 and walking two, to improve to 2-1 on the season and 8-2 in his EMCC career.

The Lions grabbed the initial lead in the nightcap by scoring twice in the second inning with the aid of two Co-Lin errors.  After the visitors temporarily moved ahead 3-2 in the third on Brown's three-run, opposite-field homer off starting pitcher Zach Irwin, EMCC promptly responded with three runs in both the third and fourth innings.  Following his third-inning sacrifice fly, freshman Taylor Stafford lined his first collegiate home run – a three-run shot – over the right-field fence to stretch the lead to 8-3 after four innings.

The Wolfpack managed to cut into EMCC's lead by scoring a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth to close the gap to 8-6 heading into the final frame.  Freshman closer Ryan Rigby, of Koscisuko, came in to record the final five outs to pick up his third save of the campaign.

A freshman southpaw from Madison Central High School, Irwin upped his record to 2-1 on the year after giving up four runs on three hits, with five strikeouts and four walks, while pitching into the fifth inning.

Offensively in the nightcap, the Lions totaled a dozen hits as five different players had two hits apiece.  Stafford, a product of New Hope High School, drove home four runs in game two with his sacrifice fly and three-run homer in consecutive at-bats.  Standland, a sophomore second baseman from Oak Grove High School, had two hits in each game of the doubleheader sweep.

Coach Chris Rose's MACJC-leading EMCC Lions continue their current homestand by playing host to Coahoma Community College on Wednesday (March 25) before entertaining rival Meridian Community College the following Tuesday (March 31).  Both upcoming twinbills are slated for 4 p.m. starts on the Scooba campus.