EMCC Lions take three-game baseball series with two wins over Shelton State
East Mississippi Community College’s baseball team took two of three games from Shelton State during a home-and-home series played this past week. The Lions claimed a 12-8 victory in Scooba on Thursday before the two teams split Saturday’s doubleheader in Tuscaloosa, with EMCC prevailing, 17-8, in the first game and the Bucs bouncing back with a 15-3 nightcap win.
SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College's baseball team took two of three games from Shelton State during a home-and-home series played this past week. The Lions claimed a 12-8 victory in Scooba on Thursday before the two teams split Saturday's doubleheader in Tuscaloosa, with EMCC prevailing, 17-8, in the first game and the Bucs bouncing back with a 15-3 nightcap win.
In Thursday's series opener played at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field, the tandem of Evan Radford and Joseph Scarborough combined for five extra-base hits and seven runs batted in to power the Lions to a 12-8 win during a scheduled nine-inning contest. Scarborough's run-scoring triple – his first of two three-baggers in the game – in the second inning helped stake EMCC to an early 4-1 lead.
With the Lions clinging to a 7-6 lead late in the game, the power-hitting sophomore tandem jointly supplied three insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh. After Radford smacked his second leadoff solo home run of the game to give him eight homers on the young season, Scarborough followed later in the frame with a two-run blast that lengthened EMCC's lead to 10-6.
Highlighted by Scarborough's 3-for-4 effort at the plate with a home run and two triples to produce four runs along with Radford's 2-for-4 outing with a pair of solo shots and a sacrifice fly, EMCC had five players with multiple hits in the series opener. Colin Boyd, Zac Butler and Hugh LeMasters all added two hits apiece in the Lions' 12-8 home win.
Two days later during twin-bill action in Tuscaloosa, the Lions picked up where they left off by continuing their hot hitting during Saturday's scheduled nine-inning opener. Their 16 hits in the first game were divided among eight different players, including seven with multiple hits.
After the home-standing Bucs took an early 7-4 lead following a five-run second inning, the Lions knotted the game at 7-7 with three runs in the third frame. EMCC added three more runs during the middle innings on LeMasters' two-out solo homer in the fifth inning and back-to-back jacks from Radford and Ayden Alsobrooks to lead off the following frame.
The Lions nailed down their second series win over Shelton State by batting around in the seventh inning to produce seven more runs. Scarborough's three-run home run and Radford's two-run single keyed EMCC's big inning and sealed the 17-8 road win.
Boyd, who hit his first collegiate homer with a leadoff blast in the second inning to begin EMCC's five-homer power display, led the way for the Lions with a 3-for-6 effort at the plate in Saturday's opener. Radford, Scarborough, LeMasters, Alsobrooks, Gates Gerhart and Coby Holmes each supplied two hits apiece in the nine-run triumph.
For the Lions, sophomore Landon Scruggs and freshman Jacob Nunn both earned their second victories of the season while pitching in middle relief during EMCC's wins over the Bucs on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
Shelton State salvaged Saturday's doubleheader split with EMCC by pounding out a 15-3 seven-inning, run-rule victory in the nightcap. Limited to six hits by Bucs pitching, the Lions' three runs in the series finale came on LeMasters' two-out, two-run double in the third inning and JR Moore's solo homer in the sixth.
Head coach Brett Kimbrel's 13-4 EMCC Lions are scheduled to take on MACCC foes Meridian and host East Central during a three-team, round-robin event that has been moved up a day to Tuesday (Feb. 27) due to Wednesday's forecasted rain chances in the area. Tuesday's non-conference action at Clark/Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur is set to begin with a noon ECCC-MCC matchup followed by an EMCC-MCC game around 3:30 p.m. and an EMCC-ECCC nightcap at approximately 6:15 p.m.
