EMCC Lions extend baseball win streak to six games with home sweep over Coahoma

SCOOBA – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College improved their current baseball win streak to six consecutive games with Monday's 11-1, 20-2 home sweep over Coahoma in MACCC action played at Gerald Poole Field.

After having swept both Meridian and Holmes on the road last week, the EMCC Lions are now 23-10 overall and in sixth place among the MACCC standings with a 9-3 conference mark.

During Monday's home doubleheader sweep over Coahoma, EMCC pounded out double-digit hits in both contests while outscoring the visiting Tigers, 31-3, on the afternoon.

In the opening game, the Lions scored in five of the eight innings played. EMCC's leading hitters were Joe Scarborough, Zac Butler and Aiden Fancher with two hits apiece. Scarborough had RBI doubles in the first and eighth innings, while Butler added run-scoring singles in the fourth and seventh frames. As a team, the Lions also stole seven bases in the opener, including three by Fancher.

On the mound in the opener, sophomore right-hander Brandon King improved to 3-2 on the year after pitching seven innings of two-hit baseball with two strikeouts and no walks. The Hancock High School product retired the first 14 batters he faced until allowing a two-out single to Patrick Mangels in the fifth inning. King faced two batters over the minimum and didn't allow a Coahoma base runner to reach third base during his stint.

In the seven-inning nightcap, the Lions blew open a 7-2 lead by sending 18 hitters to the plate during a 13-run fifth frame that featured grand slams by Jackson Rodgers and Jon Paul Yates. It marked Rodgers' first collegiate home run and Yates' sixth long ball of the season. EMCC's second slam of the inning capped Yates' 3-for-4 effort at the plate that also included four runs scored and a total of five runs driven in.

Scarborough followed with a triple and a single during the second game, while JR Moore belted his third homer of the year and added a single for the Lions.

Sophomore right-hander Landon Scruggs recorded his team-leading fifth win of the year in six decisions, striking out seven with two walks and scattering six hits over five innings.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions are scheduled to play host to the Bulldogs of Mississippi Gulf Coast on Friday (March 29). First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. on the Scooba campus.