EMCC Lions fall twice on the road to No. 4 Pearl River in MACCC baseball action

POPLARVILLE – The visiting Lions of East Mississippi Community College played nationally fourth-ranked Pearl River close during both games of Saturday's MACCC baseball doubleheader before dropping 6-4 and 8-4 decisions to the Wildcats at Dub Herring Park.

In the opening game, EMCC staked starting pitcher Cooper Garrison to an early 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the first inning on Evan Radford's RBI single followed by Ayden Alsobrooks' run-scoring groundout.

The score remained the same until the middle innings when PRCC got on the scoreboard with a solo homer by Hollis Porter in the fourth. Two frames later, the Wildcats moved ahead, 4-2, keyed by Marshall Phillips' two-run double.

The eighth proved to be the decisive inning of the opening contest, as the teams traded two-run at-bats. After the Lions knotted the score at 4-4 on Gates Gerhart's two-out, two-run single as a pinch-hitter, Pearl River answered in the home half of the frame with Phillips' go-ahead, two-run homer off EMCC reliever Riley Myers.

The Lions out-hit Pearl River, 10-7, in the opener, led by Jon Paul Yates' 4-for-5 effort at the plate with four singles. Radford added a pair of singles in five plate appearances.

EMCC's Gerhart came through in the clutch again in the nightcap with a three-run home run off PRCC starting pitcher JT Schnoor in the third inning that gave the visitors a 4-0 lead. JR Moore's sacrifice fly put the Lions on the board the previous frame.

That was the only offense EMCC would be able to generate, however, as Schnoor and reliever Carson Fair combined to limit the Lions to only a pair of singles over the game's final four innings.

Meanwhile, Pearl River's bats came alive during a five-run third inning off EMCC starting pitcher Drake Bayles. Bryce Fowler's two-out solo shot was followed later in the inning by Phillips' three-run blast to put the Wildcats in front for good.

PRCC added three insurance runs in the fifth frame that was highlighted by Alex Wade's two-run single.

Colin Boyd had two of EMCC's five total hits with a pair of singles in the nightcap.

With Saturday's home sweep of the Lions, Pearl River improved to 38-5 overall and remained unbeaten (18-0) in conference play on the year.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (25-14, 11-7 MACCC) are scheduled to play host to the Itawamba Indians on Tuesday (April 9). Weather permitting, Tuesday's EMCC-ICC baseball doubleheader is slated for a 2 p.m. first pitch at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.