EMCC Lions have seven-game win streak snapped but earn home baseball split with Gulf Coast

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College earned a home baseball doubleheader split with Mississippi Gulf Coast during Friday's MACCC action played at Gerald Poole Field. After claiming a 6-4 victory in the opening game, the Lions had their seven-game conference win streak snapped with an 11-4 setback to the Bulldogs in the nightcap.

In the scheduled nine-inning opening contest, Evan Radford gave the Lions an early 1-0 lead with a first-inning solo home run off Gulf Coast starting pitcher Brandon Cain. Radford's ninth homer of the year tied him with Joe Scarborough for the team lead and gave the Southern Miss bounceback 21 long balls for his EMCC career.

The visitors answered two innings later by batting through the lineup to score four runs off EMCC starting pitcher Cooper Garrison. The Lions got a run back in the home half of the third inning to make it a 4-2 game heading into the middle innings.

After the Lions knotted the score at 4-4 with a pair of two-out runs in the fourth frame on Zac Butler's solo homer and an RBI single by Colin Boyd, they took advantage of some control issues by Gulf Coast relievers in the seventh inning. EMCC loaded the bases with a pair of singles and a walk to begin the inning and then managed to push across the go-ahead runs on a walk to Ayden Alsobrooks followed by pinch-hitter Jackson Rodgers getting hit by a pitch.

Garrison settled down on the mound following the Bulldogs' four-run third inning to allow only one single over the next 4.2 innings before giving way to reliever Jacob Nunn in the eighth inning. Garrison, a Gulfport product, improved to 4-3 on the year after scattering seven hits, four walks and two hit batsmen during his 141-pitch, five-strikeout performance. Nunn picked up his first collegiate save by retiring Gulf Coast's last four batters in order.

Boyd had three singles in four at-bats while Radford went 2-for-4 to combine for five of EMCC's seven total hits in the opener.

In the nightcap, the Lions mounted an early 4-0 lead through the first three innings. On the heels of a bases-loaded walk to Jon Paul Yates in the second inning, EMCC scored three runs a frame later on Aiden Fancher's RBI double, a run-scoring triple by Boyd, and Coby Holmes' sacrifice fly.

The Bulldogs took command of the nightcap by consecutively hitting through their lineup during a four-run fourth inning and a five-run fifth frame. The visitors ended EMCC starting pitcher Drake Bayles' outing while tying the game in the fourth with the aid of Landon Holliman's two-run single followed two batters later by Dawson Hall's two-out, two-run double.

Gulf Coast got into EMCC's bullpen and moved ahead for good the following frame. The big hits for the Bulldogs during their five-run fifth were Holliman's second two-run single in as many innings and a two-out, two-run single by Cain.

With the Lions using seven pitchers in the seven-inning nightcap, MGCCC added a pair of insurance runs in the final frame to account for the 11-4 final.

Alsobrooks' 3-for-4 effort at the plate and Fancher's pair of hits combined for five of EMCC's seven total hits in the second contest.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (24-11, 10-4 MACCC) are scheduled for a pair of road conference doubleheaders during the coming week. After traveling to Booneville to take on Northeast Mississippi on Wednesday (April 3), the Lions will close the week by meeting fifth-ranked and league-leading Pearl River on Saturday (April 6) in Poplarville.