EMCC Lions set to begin 2024 baseball campaign by hosting Southwest Virginia

SCOOBA – Aiming to extend a consecutive streak of back-to-back postseason appearances, the East Mississippi Community College baseball team is set to open the 2024 season by playing host to Southwest Virginia Community College in a pair of doubleheaders this weekend (Feb. 2-3) on the Scooba campus. First pitch is set for noon on both Friday and Saturday at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions will stay at home to welcome Snead State for a Thursday (Feb. 8) twin bill in Scooba, before they hit the road for a rematch against Snead State two days later (Feb. 10) in Boaz, Alabama. The Lions are then slated to meet Marion Military Institute in consecutive doubleheaders beginning with a Feb. 15 twin bill in Marion, Alabama followed by a Saturday (Feb. 17) rematch in Scooba.

To close out the month of February, East Mississippi has sandwiched back-to-back scheduled meetings with Shelton State – Feb. 22 in Scooba & Feb. 24 in Tuscaloosa – between a pair of three-team, round-robin events against MACCC opponents in non-conference action. On Feb. 20, the Lions will travel to Perkinston to meet Southwest Mississippi and host Mississippi Gulf Coast. The following week (Feb. 28), EMCC will take on host East Central and Meridian in Decatur.

The Lions are scheduled to close out their non-conference baseball slate by playing host to MACCC foes Jones and Northeast Mississippi in Scooba during a three-team, round-robin event on March 5. EMCC's conference competition is then set to begin with consecutive home doubleheaders versus Hinds (March 9) and Mississippi Delta (March 13). 

2024 EAST MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASEBALL SEASON PREVIEW

As the popular baseball adage goes, you can never have too much pitching.

That saying certainly holds true for East Mississippi Community College's 2024 baseball team. Returning pitchers Ayden Alsobrooks (Picayune/Starkville Academy), Drake Bayles (Hazlehurst/Copiah Academy), Cooper Garrison (Gulfport/Gulfport HS), Brandon King (Kiln/Hancock HS), Joseph Scarborough (Pascagoula/Resurrection Catholic HS), Landon Scruggs (Olive Branch/Center Hill HS), and Walker Swearingen (Meridian/Clarkdale HS) combined to record 20 of the Lions' 24 wins a year ago as well as having accounted for 44 of the team's 50 pitching starts in 2023.

"They're all better at commanding the strike zone. Plus, their secondary pitches are better," EMCC head baseball coach Brett Kimbrel said.

The collective improvement among EMCC's returning players in general can be attributed to them getting stronger during the offseason and fall. Most of them also took advantage of summer baseball leagues as well as specialized camps and clinics.

"All of our returners came back physically stronger," Kimbrel noted. "Everyone put emphasis on gaining weight and getting stronger to become more durable during the latter part of the season."

Along with the return of a handful of experienced starting pitchers, including the presence of reliable two-way everyday starters Alsobrooks and Scarborough, the Lions also return long ball threat Evan Radford. The Southern Miss bounceback, out of Hoover, Alabama, had 10 home runs and 38 RBIs through the month of March for EMCC a year ago before being slowed by an injury during the final month of the 2023 season. Radford still ended up tying for fifth among MACCC hitters with 12 home runs along with also leading the Lions with 40 runs batted in and batting .310.

Kimbrel, along with his assistant coaches Chase Reeves and Dylan Earnest, also received a tremendous boost when third-year veterans Coby Holmes and Zac Butler (Columbus/New Hope HS) were granted an extra season of eligibility after undergoing medical hardship seasons a year ago. With both players exhibiting team captain traits, Butler figures to be the Lions' starting catcher in the spring. Holmes, out of Saraland (AL) High School, enters 2024 with a .313 career average for the Lions after hitting a team-best .333 during last year's injury-shortened season to follow up his .299 average and seven home runs for the 28-19 EMCC club in 2022.

"Zac has really raised his game to a new level both offensively and defensively. Coby brings invaluable in-game experience to our team. It's great for our overall team chemistry to have those guys back in our lineup," Kimbrel emphasized.

Other position players who are returning for the Lions in 2024 will be catcher JR Moore (McCalla, AL/Bessemer Academy), infielder Jon Paul Yates (Tupelo/Tupelo Christian Prep School), as well as outfielders Gates Gerhart (Columbus/New Hope HS), Aiden Fancher (Louisville/Winston Academy) and Caden Tate (Starkville/Starkville HS).

With as many as 20 newcomers having been added to EMCC's 35-man roster following back-to-back postseason appearances for the Lions, Kimbrel was pleased with the team chemistry that was displayed throughout the extended fall season. The Lions took advantage of the additional practice time and extra playing dates granted by the NJCAA to gain valuable experience playing and practicing on the their own fully turfed home field following last year's renovation.

Newcomers to this year's EMCC baseball roster are: Eli Basham (Olive Branch/Marshall Academy); Matthew Birdsong (Madison/Madison Central HS); Colin Boyd (West Point/Oak Hill Academy); Otis Brooks III (Gulfport/St. Patrick Catholic HS); Jackson Crow (Oxford, AL/Oxford HS); Hill Gainey (Gulfport/Saint Stanislaus HS); Bishop Hardin (Sebastopol/Leake Academy); Wyatt Johnson (Starkville/Starkville Academy); Ryan Ladner (Gulfport/Hancock HS); Hugh LeMasters (Long Beach/Saint Stanislaus HS); Sam Malone (Columbus/New Hope HS); Miles Mitchell (Alabaster, AL/Thompson HS); Chipper Moore (Vardaman/Vardaman HS); Ty Murphy (Eupora/Eupora HS); Riley Myers (Philadelphia/Leake Academy); Jacob Nunn (Kosciusko/Kosciusko HS); Hugh Parsons (Southaven/DeSoto Central HS); Gabe Roberts (Dumas/Pine Grove HS); Jackson Rodgers (Pontotoc/South Pontotoc HS); and Luke Sides (Southaven/DeSoto Central HS).

"I look forward to seeing how our preparation throughout the fall equals where we need to be during the spring season," Kimbrel added. "We'll be trying to find out if we can take that first month or so of the pre-conference spring schedule to really lock into being a team that knows we have a chance to win every time we walk onto the field."