EMCC Lions stay in postseason baseball contention with 14-6, 10-9 home sweep over Northwest

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College capped its home baseball season in triumphant fashion by sweeping visiting Northwest Mississippi during Tuesday's MACCC action played at Gerald Poole Field. The Lions broke open the first game with a pair of late four-run innings to prevail, 14-6, while battling back from a 7-2 deficit in the nightcap to walk it off, 10-9, in the bottom of the seventh to complete the sweep.

The nine-inning opener stayed close for the first two-thirds of the contest, beginning with the teams trading a pair of runs in the first frame. After giving up two unearned runs to begin the game, EMCC starting pitcher Ayden Alsobrooks helped his own cause with a two-out, two-run double down the left field line to knot the score after one inning.

Northwest went back ahead, 4-2, with runs in the third and fourth innings on Peyton Martin's two-out solo homer and Eli Selby's run-scoring groundout, respectively. Following Joe Scarborough's solo blast in the fourth inning that cut the deficit in half, the Lions claimed their first lead of the opener, 6-4, by plating three runs a frame later with the help of two Ranger errors and four bases on balls.

After the visitors answered by tying things up at 6-6 on Selby's two-run double in the sixth inning, EMCC went back to work offensively during the final third of the contest. With six of their nine hits in the opener going for extra bases, the Lions used a pair of late-game, bases-clearing drives to put the game out of reach. On the heels of Austin Garrison's three-run triple in the seventh inning, Carson Gault followed the next frame by smacking an inside-the-park home run that also emptied the bases to account for the game's eight-run final margin.

Scarborough and Zack Griffith led the way with two hits apiece for EMCC in the opener, while freshman right-hander Cooper Garrison picked up his fifth win of the season by scattering two hits and striking out a pair without a walk over the final 3.1 innings in relief of Alsobrooks.

Northwest gained the early momentum in the nightcap by batting around to score five runs with the aid of six walks by EMCC pitching in the second inning. The big hit in the frame for the Rangers was Dawson Griffin's three-run homer off starting pitcher Walker Swearingen.

Though the Lions got on the board in the home half of the second inning via Will Crawford's two-out, two-run single, the visitors got those pair of runs back with solo tallies in the third and fourth frames on respective RBI singles by Jacob Hill and Selby.

Trailing, 7-2, EMCC began its nightcap comeback by batting through the order during a four-run fourth inning. With the aid of four walks and a run-producing wild pitch by Northwest pitching, the frame was capped by Alsobrooks' two-out, two-run single to pull the Lions to within a run.

The teams kept it a one-run game through the fifth inning with Hill's homer for Northwest and another EMCC run scored via the wild pitch. The Lions then grabbed their first lead (9-8) of the nightcap the next frame on Scarborough's two-out, two-run blast off Rangers reliever Brayden Sanders.

The range of emotions continued into the final frame of the scheduled seven-inning contest. After the Rangers knotted the score at 9-9 on Hayes Davis' RBI groundout that plated Griffin, who had a leadoff double and advanced to third on a wild pitch, EMCC once again took advantage of some wildness by Northwest pitching. Working his third inning of relief, Sanders issued consecutive two-out walks to pinch-hitter Evan Radford and Crawford before surrendering the game-winning hit to Gault that scored pinch-runner Heath Brunson.

Along with hitting home runs during both games of EMCC's first home doubleheader sweep of the season, Scarborough also celebrated his 19^th birthday by collecting his first collegiate pitching victory. The versatile freshman out of Resurrection Catholic High School threw the final two innings of the nightcap to earn his first win in three EMCC decisions.  

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions got back to the .500 mark (22-22) overall on the year and improved to 10-14 in conference play to stay in postseason contention. East Mississippi is scheduled to finish out the regular season away from home with road dates at Copiah-Lincoln (Sat., April 22), Shelton State (Mon., April 24), and current MACCC front-runner East Central (Fri., April 28).