Carson Gault’s pair of seventh-inning homers lift EMCC to 9-8 comeback playoff win over ECCC

SCOOBA — Carson Gault's pair of seventh-inning home runs sparked third-seeded East Mississippi Community College to a thrilling 9-8 comeback home win over eighth-seeded East Central during Thursday's opening game of an NJCAA Region 23 best-of-three baseball playoff series being played at Gerald Poole Field.

Game two of the EMCC-ECCC series is scheduled for a 2 p.m. Friday start on the Scooba campus. A third game, if needed, is set for a 2 p.m. first pitch on Saturday.

Up until Gault's seventh-inning power surge, the Lions had been limited to just one run and three hits by East Central starting pitcher Grant Edwards. Wesley Sides' two-out solo home run – his team-leading 10^th homer of the year – in the third inning knotted the score at 1-1.

The Warriors got on the board first with second-inning doubles by Kade Turnage and Coleton Smith off EMCC starting pitcher Cade Davis.

Sophomore right-hander Grant Johnson, who transferred to EMCC this season from East Central, followed Davis by working 3 2/3 solid innings of middle relief for the Lions. Johnson allowed solo runs in the fourth and sixth innings, but the Hernando product minimized the damage by leaving a pair of runners in scoring position during both frames.

East Central extended its lead to 5-1 with two more runs in the top of the seventh on J.T. Vance's two-out, two-run double off EMCC's Austin Garrison.

The game's momentum began to change when Gault led off the home half of the seventh with a pinch-hit home run off Edwards. The New Albany product made the most of just his ninth at-bat of the season, but the reserve catcher's memorable afternoon wasn't quite finished. Following a single by Beau Bates, EMCC cut the deficit to a run when Kade Shannon's hard-hit grounder got under the shortstop's glove and rolled all the way to the wall to score both runners. After back-to-back walks and another infield error by the Warriors, Blayze Berry's RBI single gave the Lions their first lead of the contest at 6-5. As the Lions batted around in sending a dozen batters to the plate in the seventh, Gault then fittingly capped the eight-run explosion by blasting a three-run homer off ECCC reliever Luke Odom to make it a 9-5 contest.

The four-run lead proved to be just enough for the Lions, as the Warriors managed to close the gap to a single run on Turnage's two-out, three-run homer off Berry in the ninth inning. Things got even more interesting when Ramie Harrison followed with a double, but Berry then intentionally walked Austin Lee before getting Leighton Jenkins to ground to first for the game's final out and give EMCC a well-earned 1-0 series lead.

Gault's two homers and Bates' three singles combined for five of EMCC's eight hits in the contest.

Garrison earned his first win of the season and second of his EMCC career, while Berry picked up his third save of the year to go along with his team-leading 5-1 record as a starting pitcher.

With their most wins in a season since EMCC's 2015 team went 29-18 overall and 20-8 in conference play while advancing to regional tournament play, head coach Brett Kimbrel's 26-16 Lions squad (20-8 in MACCC) are now 12-5 at home this season.