EMCC Lions secure baseball doubleheader road split with Northeast Mississippi
The Lions of East Mississippi Community College earned a road conference baseball doubleheader split with Northeast Mississippi during Wednesday’s MACCC action played at The Plex. After dropping a 12-9 decision in the opening game, EMCC secured the split with an 8-5 nightcap win over the Tigers.
BOONEVILLE – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College earned a road conference baseball doubleheader split with Northeast Mississippi during Wednesday's MACCC action played at The Plex. After dropping a 12-9 decision in the opening game, EMCC secured the split with an 8-5 nightcap win over the Tigers.
Following a nine-inning opener in which they battled back from an 8-2 fourth-inning deficit to knot the score at 9-9 before falling by three runs, the Lions turned the tables on Northeast with a three-run victory in the seven-inning nightcap.
On the heels of hitting his team-leading 10th home run of the year and 22nd of his EMCC career in the first game, Evan Radford gave the visitors the early lead with a two-run double in the first inning of game two.
The Lions' lead stood at 4-2 after three innings before the teams traded multi-run innings in the fourth and fifth frames to account for the final margin. After EMCC extended the margin to 8-2 with a four-run fourth capped by Ayden Alsobrooks' two-run triple, the Tigers responded with a three-run fifth off EMCC starting pitcher Landon Scruggs.
Neither team scored over the nightcap's final two innings, as EMCC slugger/closer Joseph Scarborough moved to the mound from his right field position to get the final seven outs, including five strikeouts, to earn his team-best third save of the season. Scruggs picked up his team-leading sixth win of the year in seven decisions by going 4.2 innings against the Tigers.
Alsobrooks led EMCC's nine-hit team effort with a 3-for-4 outing at the plate. Colin Boyd and Coby Holmes added two hits apiece in the Lions' victory.
Though it didn't last long, EMCC grabbed an early 2-0 lead for starting pitcher Brandon King in the opening game. Zac Butler's second-inning sacrifice fly that plated Scarborough, who had a leadoff double, was followed a frame later by Jon Paul Yates' RBI groundout that scored Cooper Garrison, who had tripled.
After the home-standing Tigers seemingly took control of the contest by batting around during a six-run third inning and then adding two more runs the next frame on Kristian Sprawling's two-run homer, EMCC chipped away at Northeast's 8-2 lead to eventually knot the score at 9-9 with three straight multi-run innings. Radford's three-run blast in the fifth frame off Northeast starting pitcher Taylor Ballard preceded two-run innings in the sixth and seventh.
With each team using four pitchers in the opening game, the Tigers reached EMCC's Ryan Ladner for a game-deciding three runs in an eighth inning that began with an outfield error.
Northeast out-hit the visitors, 16-8, in the opener. Scarborough was the lone Lion with multiple hits in the contest on a double and a single with two runs scored.
Head coach Brett Kimbrel's fifth-place EMCC Lions (25-12, 11-5 MACCC) will meet the league-leading and nationally fourth-ranked Pearl River Wildcats (36-5, 16-0 MACCC) in a scheduled Saturday doubleheader in Poplarville. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. at PRCC's Dub Herring Park.