EMCC Lions set to open baseball season this weekend at tourney hosted by top-ranked Northwest Florida State

SCOOBA – Having averaged 30 wins during the past two years, the East Mississippi Community College baseball team is set to begin the 2016 campaign with as much preseason optimism as the previous two successful seasons.  The Lions are slated to open the new season this weekend at the Carl McInnis Classic, hosted by preseason top-ranked and defending NJCAA Division I National Champion Northwest Florida State College in Niceville.

EMCC's challenging start to the 2016 baseball season will include a pair of games with the host and No. 1-ranked NWF Raiders as well as two contests against NJCAA Division I power Shelton State Community College of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  The Lions are scheduled to take on Northwest Florida State Friday at 11 a.m. and then again Saturday at 5 p.m., while sandwiching 2 p.m. games against SSCC on Friday and Saturday.

Following a scheduled Feb. 12 road doubleheader versus Southern Union State Community College in Wadley, Alabama, the EMCC Lions are set to make their 2016 home debut on Valentine's Day, Sunday, Feb. 14, against Jackson State Community College.  First pitch is slated for noon at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.

Under the guidance of sixth-year head baseball coach Chris Rose, East Mississippi returns five starting position players along with six pitchers from last year's 29-18 ballclub that went 20-8 in MACJC play as regular-season state runners-up en route to making the program's first NJCAA Region 23 Tournament appearance since 2004.  Coupled with their prior 32-13 overall mark and MACJC North Division regular-season title in 2014, the Lions have put together a 61-31 composite two-year record while earning No. 18 national rankings in the final NJCAA Division II baseball poll each of the last two seasons.

Highlighted by the return of one of the nation's top sluggers in first baseman David Pimentel, EMCC welcomes back four hitters who batted .320 or better for a 2015 squad that hit .332 as a team a year ago.  A Nashville native, Pimentel ranked 12^th nationally with 14 home runs and 22^nd with 61 runs batted in as a freshman to go along with his .355 batting average and .684 slugging percentage.

Also back for East Mississippi are reigning MACJC All-State second-teamers Taylor Stafford and Jo McNabb, who batted .392 and .375, respectively, last season with four home runs apiece and a combined 53 RBIs between them.  Stafford, a sophomore southpaw, also made seven appearances on the mound a year ago with five starts.  McNabb, a Hattiesburg native, stole a team-high 17 bases in 2015 in addition to his 11 extra-base hits.

EMCC's other returning starting position players are versatile sophomores Emil Ellis and Corley Reynolds.  Ellis, from Ridgeland, batted .320 with seven doubles and three triples as a 40-game starter in the outfield for the Lions.  Reynolds, a Pascagoula product, hit .285 while making 41 starts primarily at third base last season.

As top priorities for 2016, East Mississippi looks to replace reliable hurlers J'Daylin Jackson (Eastern New Mexico University) and Andrew Crane (Troy University), who combined for 27 pitching victories the past two seasons.  The Lions will also have to fill the defensive void up the middle with the departures of two-year starting catcher Dylan Vuncannon (University of Memphis) as well as the steady middle-infield tandem of shortstop Kyle Liberto (Southern University) and second baseman Drew Standland (William Carey University).

Along with dual-threat left-hander Taylor Stafford, EMCC returns his prep teammate JC Redden, who jointly helped lead New Hope High School to back-to-back Class 5A state titles.  The Lions also bring back right-handers Layton Dill, Jay Booth, Ryder Davis and Colton McKeithen.  Dill and Redden were 4-1 and 3-2, respectively, on the mound for EMCC last season.  Out of the bullpen, Booth went 1-1 with four saves in a team-most 18 appearances, while Davis made 13 relief appearances with a 1-1 mark.

With Rose and assistant coaches Anthony Izzio and Graham Odom having secured yet another talented recruiting class, the EMCC Lions expect to receive immediate contributions from 2015 Mississippi Association of Coaches (MAC) All-Stars Chance Witt, Marcus Ragan and Alex Knight.  Witt, a left-hander out of Pontotoc High School, was named Division 1-4A MVP as a prep senior.  Ragan, a speedy outfielder from Warren Central High School, batted .427 with 27 stolen bases last season to earn second-team all-state honors by The Clarion-Ledger newspaper.  Knight, an honorable mention all-state selection, helped lead Sumrall High School to last year's Class 3A state championship, along with fellow Lion newcomers Drake Pace and Landon White.     

The EMCC Lions are scheduled to begin MACJC baseball action on Saturday, March 12, by playing host to Southwest Mississippi in Scooba.  Other home conference doubleheaders are slated for March 16 (Mississippi Delta), March 19 (Jones County), April 9 (East Central), April 13 (Northeast Mississippi), April 19 (Itawamba), and April 30 (Mississippi Gulf Coast).  East Mississippi's road conference opponents this season are Holmes (March 22), Copiah-Lincoln (March 25), Coahoma (March 30), Meridian (April 5), Hinds (April 16), Pearl River (April 23), and Northwest Mississippi (April 27).