EMCC Lions close out regular-season road baseball slate by splitting at No. 15 Northwest

SENATOBIA – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College closed out their regular-season road baseball schedule by earning a doubleheader split with 15^th-ranked Northwest Mississippi during Wednesday's MACCC action played at Jim Miles Field. After claiming the 9-6 opener with a five-run ninth inning, the Lions dropped a hard-fought 6-5 decision to the Rangers in the nightcap.

In both games of the conference twin bill, home-standing Northwest owned leads heading into the respective final innings. In the opener, EMCC rallied for five runs in the ninth inning after the Rangers went ahead, 6-4, with a three-run eighth inning. Northwest again used a go-ahead home run in the next-to-last frame of the seven-inning nightcap and managed to salvage a doubleheader split with a one-run victory. 

Owning the advantage during the first seven frames of the scheduled nine-inning opener, the Lions struck first with a trio of extra-base hits in the third inning. Consecutive doubles by Zac Butler and Coby Holmes to lead off the inning were followed by Evan Radford's RBI triple to stake EMCC starting pitcher Landon Scruggs to a 2-0 lead.

After Ayden Alsobrooks' two-out, run-scoring single for EMCC was matched by Jacob Hill's sacrifice fly during the fifth inning, the Rangers trimmed the deficit to 4-3 the following frame. James Smith's two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth for Northwest answered Colin Boyd's RBI double in the top half of the inning.

Following a scoreless seventh, the Rangers grabbed the momentum an inning later by taking a temporary 6-4 lead on Levi Lang's three-run home run off EMCC reliever Luke Sides. The Lions' freshman right-hander settled down to retire the next three Northwest batters in order and was then gifted his third relief win of the season when the visitors responded with a game-winning final frame.

Sparked by Jon Paul Yates' leadoff double and capped by Gates Gerhart's two-run homer, EMCC produced five runs in the ninth inning to reclaim the lead at 9-6. The Lions then handed the ball to reliever Riley Myers, and the freshman closer nailed down his second save of the year by retiring the Rangers in order in the bottom of the ninth.

East Mississippi's 13-hit team effort in the opener was paced by Yates' 3-for-5 showing at the plate. Radford and Holmes followed with two hits apiece for the Lions.

Using the momentum gained by the last-inning comeback victory in the opener, the Lions led the Rangers, 5-2, midway through the scheduled seven-inning nightcap. After EMCC's Gerhart and Northwest's Smith both smacked their second home runs of the afternoon during the second inning, the visitors scored the game's next four runs. Radford's sacrifice fly in the third preceded EMCC's three-run fourth inning that was aided by a pair of Northwest infield errors.

From that point, the Rangers scored during each of their last three at-bats, while Northwest starting pitcher Gavin McCoy faced the minimum number of Lion batters over the final three innings. The Rangers reached EMCC relievers Matthew Birdsong and Chipper Moore for solo tallies in the fourth and fifth innings to pull within a run at 5-4.

As they did in the opening game, the Rangers took the lead in the next-to-last inning when Peyton Martin hit a two-out, two-run homer off Joseph Scarborough in the bottom of the sixth. McCoy returned to the mound the next frame for Northwest and retired the side in order to seal his complete-game victory.

Limited to just four total hits by McCoy, the Lions were led at the plate in the nightcap by Gerhart's 2-for-3 effort, including his eighth home run of the season and second of the day.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (28-17, 14-10 MACCC) are scheduled to close out the regular season with home baseball doubleheaders against Copiah-Lincoln and fourth-ranked East Central during consecutive Saturdays (April 20 & 27). First pitches both dates are set for 2 p.m. at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.