EMCC Lions head to front-running East Central after splitting at Co-Lin
East Mississippi Community College stayed alive in the MACCC’s postseason baseball playoff picture by earning a road doubleheader split with Copiah-Lincoln during Saturday’s conference action played at Sullivan Field. The Lions picked up some key late insurance runs to secure an 8-6 opening win before being limited to just three hits in a 6-1 nightcap setback to the Wolves.
WESSON – East Mississippi Community College stayed alive in the MACCC's postseason baseball playoff picture by earning a road doubleheader split with Copiah-Lincoln during Saturday's conference action played at Sullivan Field. The Lions picked up some key late insurance runs to secure an 8-6 opening win before being limited to just three hits in a 6-1 nightcap setback to the Wolves.
In the opener, EMCC grabbed an early 2-0 lead with a run in the first inning and another tally in the third on Will Crawford's sacrifice fly. Started by Riley Easterling's leadoff triple, Co-Lin answered with a pair of runs off EMCC starting pitcher Drake Bayles in the home half of the third to knot the score at 2-2.
The teams exchanged runs in the fourth inning to keep the nine-inning contest close through the middle innings. EMCC's Joe Scarborough homered for the third straight game with a two-run blast, while Easterling's sacrifice fly cut the margin in half at 4-3 in favor of the visitors.
Following scoreless frames in the fifth and sixth, the scoring picked up again during the latter innings. The Lions batted through the lineup in the seventh to score four runs on six singles. Run-scoring hits by Ayden Alsobrooks, Zack Griffith and Gates Gerhart, along with Carson Gault's sacrifice fly, made it an 8-3 contest. Those additional runs proved crucial for the visitors, as the Wolves again cut into the deficit by getting three of the runs back a frame later with four singles and consecutive bases-loaded walks allowed by EMCC reliever Cooper Garrison.
Garrison, a freshman out of Gulfport, came back to retire the side in order in the ninth to secure his third save of the year and lock down Bayles' team-leading sixth victory of the season.
Gray Berry sparked EMCC's 13-hit team effort with three singles in the opening game, while Alsobrooks and Griffith added two singles each for the Lions.
Those hits were difficult to come by for the visitors in the nightcap, however, as Co-Lin's pitching duo of starter Andin Bolen and reliever Jayden Duncan limited EMCC to just three hits over the seven innings. The Lions' lone run in the second game came on Alsobrooks' RBI single that scored Berry, who had doubled to lead off the second inning. Griffith had EMCC's other hit with a single later that same inning.
The Wolves reached EMCC starting pitcher Landon Scruggs for a pair of runs during the first, third and fourth innings to hand the former MACCC Pitcher of the Week just his second loss in six decisions on the year.
Battling for one of the final spots to make the MACCC's upcoming best-of-three playoff series, head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (23-23, 11-15 MACCC) are scheduled to close out their regular-season baseball slate by visiting the conference front-running and 17th-ranked East Central Warriors (30-15, 20-4 MACCC) for a Friday (April 28) doubleheader in Decatur.
