EMCC Lions fall at No. 5 Meridian in best-of-three playoff series to close out baseball season
Making a second straight postseason appearance, the East Mississippi Community College baseball team ran into a red-hot Meridian Community College ball club during last week’s best-of-three NJCAA Region 23 playoff qualifying series. The nationally fifth-ranked Eagles used a pair of two-hit, complete-game pitching performances to knock off the visiting Lions, 15-1 and 9-1, Thursday and Friday, respectively, at Scaggs Field.
MERIDIAN – Making a second straight postseason appearance, the East Mississippi Community College baseball team ran into a red-hot Meridian Community College ball club during last week's best-of-three NJCAA Region 23 playoff qualifying series. The nationally fifth-ranked Eagles used a pair of two-hit, complete-game pitching performances to knock off the visiting Lions, 15-1 and 9-1, Thursday and Friday, respectively, at Scaggs Field.
Along with other first-round playoff winners Itawamba, Pearl River and Northeast Mississippi, Meridian advanced to join regular-season MACCC champion East Central and top-ranked LSU Eunice at next week's (May 15-19) NJCAA Region 23 Baseball Tournament to be played in Eunice, La.
After grabbing the ninth and final postseason spot by winning their regular-season finale at East Central on April 28, the EMCC Lions could only manage four total hits during a pair of run-rule road losses at second-seeded Meridian. In contrast, the conference runners-up pounded out 22 total hits with three home runs during the playoff series.
Ole Miss signee Gunnar Dennis, a product of Pearl High School, allowed only two hits, while striking out six over five innings, to improve his record to 9-1 on the year. First baseman Zack Griffith singled in the third and fourth innings to account for the Lions' only two hits in the opener. He scored EMCC's lone run of Thursday's game after singling to lead off the third inning, stealing second, and later coming home on Ethan Medlin's ground out.
Meridian totaled 14 hits with all nine position starters getting at least one hit during the five-inning opening game. The Eagles scored during all four of their at-bats, but the decisive frame was a nine-run fourth in which MCC sent 13 batters to the plate against three different EMCC pitchers. Freshman Joe Scarborough took the loss for the Lions in the opening contest.
As they did in Thursday's game, the home-standing Eagles scored four runs in the first inning of Friday's contest to again grab the early momentum. Meridian received home runs from Brennan Study and Jalen Cowan off EMCC starting pitcher Landon Scruggs in the opening frame of game two.
The Lions' lone extra-base hit of the series supplied their only run of the second game in the fourth inning when Scarborough reached Southern Miss signee Cole Boswell for his fifth home run of the season. Three batters later, Griffith singled for the third time in the series but was one of two EMCC baserunners stranded at the corners in the inning.
Boswell regrouped to throw three more shutout innings without giving up another hit en route to picking up his 11th win of the year in as many decisions. The West Lauderdale High School product struck out nine while recording his fourth complete game of the season.
On the heels of putting together the program's most successful season in seven years with a third-place, regular-season conference finish and an NJCAA Region 23 Tournament appearance a year ago, head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions were 24-26 overall and 12-16 in MACCC play this past season.