EMCC Lions force Monday’s best-of-three baseball playoff rubber match at No. 13 Jones
The Lions of East Mississippi Community College have forced Monday’s rubber game against 13th-ranked Jones College by bouncing back from Saturday’s tough-luck, extra-inning 3-2 setback with Sunday’s 6-5 series-tying victory over the Bobcats in the NJCAA Region 23 best-of-three baseball playoff series.
ELLISVILLE – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College have forced Monday's rubber game against 13th-ranked Jones College by bouncing back from Saturday's tough-luck, extra-inning 3-2 setback with Sunday's 6-5 series-tying victory over the Bobcats in the NJCAA Region 23 best-of-three baseball playoff series.
Pushed back one day because of Friday's inclement weather, Monday's EMCC-Jones series finale is scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch at Community Bank Park in Ellisville. The winner of Monday's rubber match between the visiting Lions and the host Bobcats will advance to participate in next week's (May 13-17) NJCAA Region 23 Baseball Tournament in Poplarville. The week-long, double-elimination tournament will be hosted by MACCC regular-season champion Pearl River Community College at Dub Herring Park.
On the heels of Saturday's hard-fought, 10-inning loss despite Cooper Garrison's masterful complete-game pitching gem, the Lions found themselves in an early hole during Sunday's contest. Following their three-run opening frame, the Bobcats went up 4-0 an inning later on Brady Thomas' solo home run off EMCC starting pitcher Drake Bayles.
The Lions responded in their next at-bat by scoring three runs in the third inning off Jones starter Trent Hillen. Zac Butler's leadoff homer was followed by Coby Holmes' RBI double and a sacrifice fly by Ayden Alsobrooks.
EMCC then knotted the score at 4-4 the next frame on Aiden Fancher's fourth home run of the year and 10th of his career.
Following three scoreless innings for both teams, the Lions reached Jones reliever Micah Daniell for a pair of runs in the eighth on consecutive run-scoring singles by Butler and Ty Murphy.
After the Bobcats pulled to within a run (6-5) in the home half of the eighth on Wade Fulton's two-out RBI single, EMCC's Landon Scruggs stranded two Jones runners on base for the second straight inning. The sophomore right-hander out of Center Hill High School then left the potential tying run at third base in the bottom of the ninth to improve his team-leading record to 7-1 on the year.
Marking their 30th overall win of the season – the most by an EMCC team since the 2014 season – the Lions' 10-hit team effort in Sunday's bounce-back victory was led by Butler, Holmes and Murphy with two hits apiece.
Behind Garrison, the Lions took a 1-0 lead in Saturday's series opener on Evan Radford's two-out RBI single in the fourth inning off Jones starting pitcher Beau Bryans.
After Thomas' two-run homer in the sixth inning put Jones in front, 2-1, EMCC answered with a game-tying unearned run the next frame.
Despite giving up the temporary go-ahead run in the sixth, Garrison settled down to strike out nine of the next 12 batters he faced to extend the opener to an extra frame.
After Jones reliever Brice Deaton stranded a pair of EMCC baserunners in the top of the 10th inning, the Bobcats pushed across the game-winning run on Marquette Gibson's grounder to short that plated pinch-runner Josh King from third base.
Garrison absorbed the hard-luck loss for the Lions and fell to 6-4 on the season. The sophomore right-hander out of Gulfport scattered six hits, while striking out 11 without issuing a walk, during his 130-pitch, complete-game performance.
At the plate for EMCC in the series opener, Radford had three of the Lions' five hits in Saturday's contest with a double and two singles.
