East Mississippi secures home MACJC baseball twin-bill split with 4-3 nightcap win over Itawamba

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College's baseball team recovered nicely Tuesday evening to claim a well-earned MACJC doubleheader split with Itawamba Community College at Gerald Poole Field.  The Lions first bounced back from a lopsided 14-2 setback in the opener and then showed some heart by rallying in the bottom of the seventh after letting a 3-0 nightcap lead slip away to take a 4-3 victory from the Indians. 

Following ICC's 19-hit attack in the nine-inning opener in which the visitors scored multiple runs in five different innings, the nightcap featured a pitching duel between EMCC's Jacques Pucheu and reigning MACJC Pitcher of the Week Stephon Moore for the first half of the game.  Each starter allowed only one hit through the first four innings of the second contest.

The Lions finally reached Moore in the fifth when Joseph Caskey's leadoff double paved the way for a two-run single by Mike Farnell and a two-out RBI single from Whitt Davis.  After Ryder Davis continued to keep ICC off the scoreboard with a pair of scoreless innings of relief following Pucheu's near-perfect four frames, EMCC's 3-0 lead seemed secure until control problems made for an interesting seventh inning.

With the aid of a lead-off walk to Drake Rowton followed by a Timothy Rowe single, the Indians benefitted from three wild pitches and a run-scoring double by Ty Wheeler to knot the score at 3-3.  To their credit, the Lions came right back in the home half of the seventh to string together three straight singles to secure the win and earn the twin-bill split.  Opposite-field, one-out singles by Farnell and Emil Ellis set the table for Whitt Davis' walk-off winner through the left side of the infield.  In the nightcap, Davis and Farnell combined for four of EMCC's seven hits and each had two runs batted in.

On the mound for the Lions in the second game, Pucheu faced the minimum through four innings before experiencing some tightness in his throwing (left) arm.  With two strikeouts and no walks, Pucheu only allowed a first-inning single to Rowton, who was promptly erased on a double-play ball.  Ryder Davis went the final three innings to pick up his first win of the season.

The visitors led from start to finish in the opening game, reaching EMCC starting pitcher Layton Dill for nine runs on 13 hits through 5.2 innings.  During consecutive three-run innings, ICC received a two-run single from Bryan Malone in the fifth and a two-run homer by Rowe the following frame.

Six different Indian players had multiple hits in the opener, including Wheeler's four-hit effort and three hits apiece by Malone, Rowe and Tyreque Reed, who capped the game's scoring with a three-run blast off EMCC reliever Ben Smith in the ninth.

Itawamba's pitching tandem of Blake Bennett and Jonas White scattered eight hits between them.  The Lions' primary offense of the game was supplied by sophomore Taylor Stafford with consecutive opposite-field doubles in the fourth and fifth innings.  Along with driving home both of EMCC's runs with his fifth-inning drive off the left-field wall, the New Hope High School product made a pair of highlight-worthy catches in left field during the first and fourth innings.

Coach Chris Rose's East Mississippi Lions, 12-24 overall and 8-12 within conference play, travel to Poplarville on Saturday to take on the Pearl River Wildcats in a scheduled 1 p.m. doubleheader.