EMCC Lions notch home MACCC baseball sweep over Mississippi Delta

SCOOBA – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College claimed their first conference baseball doubleheader sweep of the year by following a 9-8 walk-off win with a commanding 17-1 nightcap victory over visiting Mississippi Delta during Wednesday's MACCC twin-bill played at Gerald Poole Field.

After scoring four runs in the bottom of the second inning of the first game, the home-standing Lions led the entire contest until the Trojans knotted the score at 8-8 in the top of the ninth inning.

In a dramatic turn of events, the opening game's scoring began with Joe Scarborough's leadoff solo home run during EMCC's four-run second inning. The sophomore utility player later came in from his starting right field position during the ninth inning as the Lions' fifth pitcher of the contest. After Delta reached Scarborough for the game-tying run on Marshall Weaver's infield groundout following a one-out walk to Thomas Kuhn and Alford Hill's double, Scarborough wasted little time in breaking the brief deadlock by belting the leadoff pitch in the bottom of the ninth to straightaway center field for the game winner off Jacob Yarborough. The walk-off blast was Scarborough's second homer of the contest and eighth of the season to tie the Resurrection Catholic High School product with Evan Radford for the team lead on the year. Scarborough also picked up his second win of the season after coming into the game the previous inning in a possible save situation.

In between Scarborough opening and closing the first game's scoring, the Lions added solo runs in the third and fourth innings to grab a 6-2 lead after four frames. After the Trojans pulled to within a run (6-5) through six innings, Ty Murphy's clutch pinch-hit, two-run single with two outs in the seventh temporarily extended EMCC's lead to three runs.

Delta answered in its next at-bat by getting back those two runs and again making it a one-run contest on John Barajas' two-run homer heading into the game-deciding ninth inning.

In addition to his two home runs and picking up the win in relief, Scarborough walked twice in Wednesday's opening game while scoring four runs. Ayden Alsobrooks and Jon Paul Yates also had two hits apiece for EMCC in the opening game.

The Lions used their late-game momentum in the opener to send 13 batters to the plate during a nine-run first frame in the nightcap. The big blow in the inning was Coby Holmes' three-run homer.

After the Trojans managed to push across their lone run of the second game off winning pitcher Landon Scruggs on Que Carothers' second-inning sacrifice fly, the Lions batted around for the second consecutive time a frame later. Run-scoring doubles by Radford and Gates Gerhart capped the five-run inning that extended EMCC's early lead to 14-1.

Adding a third-inning sacrifice fly by Murphy as well as Colin Boyd's two-run homer in the sixth, the Lions amassed 14 hits as a team in the nightcap. JR Moore led the way with three singles, while Radford and Gerhart had two hits apiece.

Scruggs improved to 3-1 on the season while scattering six hits and only allowing the one unearned run through five innings. Matthew Birdsong and Ryan Ladner came on to toss back-to-back scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (17-8, 3-1 MACCC) are slated to begin a stretch of three consecutive road conference baseball doubleheaders by traveling to Jones College to take on the Bobcats on Saturday (March 16). Weather and field conditions permitting, Saturday's first pitch in Ellisville is scheduled for 2 p.m.