Ethridge's complete-game win and pair of EMCC home runs pace Lions to doubleheader split at Mississippi Delta
Smokey Ethridge's third consecutive complete-game victory keyed East Mississippi Community College's doubleheader baseball split at Mississippi Delta Community College Saturday afternoon. A 6-2 EMCC victory over the Trojans in the opener was matched by Delta's 5-1 nightcap triumph in the MACJC North Division twin bill.
MOORHEAD – Smokey Ethridge's third consecutive complete-game victory keyed East Mississippi Community College's doubleheader baseball split at Mississippi Delta Community College Saturday afternoon. A 6-2 EMCC victory over the Trojans in the opener was matched by Delta's 5-1 nightcap triumph in the MACJC North Division twin bill.
The Lions provided all of the run support Ethridge would need in the first two innings of the opener. Sophomore Austin Braddock, of Columbus' Heritage Academy, belted his team-leading sixth home run of the year off Delta starting pitcher Devontae Wilson to put EMCC on the scoreboard in the first inning.
An inning later, the visitors increased their lead to 6-0 by scoring five runs on four extra-base hits. Jake Upton's one-out double and Drew Standland's walk preceded Trent Waddell's two-run double. An out later, Colton Caver's run-scoring double was followed by Tyler Odom's two-run home run – his third of the season.
After getting out of a second-inning jam that featured three Delta hits, Ethridge settled down midway through the game before surrendering two unearned runs in the sixth inning. The sophomore right-hander came back to retire the side in order in the seventh to lock down his third straight complete-game victory.
Ethridge, a product of West Lauderdale High School, scattered seven hits over seven innings, with two strikeouts and no walks, to improve his season's pitching record to 5-1 and up his career mark to 11-3. Over his last three starts, Ethridge also owns complete-game wins over Northwest Mississippi and Itawamba, allowing a total of just five runs over that 22-inning stretch with 12 strikeouts and only two walks.
Offensively in Saturday's opener at Delta, the Lions banged out a dozen hits with a quartet of Lion players achieving multiple-hit outings. Caver's 3-for-4 effort at the plate, including a pair of doubles, led the way for EMCC, while Waddell, Odom and LeDarious Clark all added two hits apiece.
The home-standing Trojans turned the tables on EMCC in the nightcap by reaching Waddell for five runs through the first three innings. With Waddell, a left-hander from Tuscaloosa, making his sophomore-season mound debut for the Lions, Delta plated two runs in the first inning on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly. The Trojans chased Waddell from the game in the third after three doubles and a hit batsman produced three more runs.
Meanwhile, MDCC starting pitcher Evan Hickman allowed just a second-inning run en route to throwing a five-hit, complete-game victory. Appearing to get stronger as the nightcap moved along, the freshman right-hander from Holly Springs held the Lions hitless over the final three innings.
Clark, who scored EMCC's lone run in game two following a single and subsequent stolen base, had two of the team's five hits with two singles in the nightcap. At the plate, Waddell stroked a third-inning double along with drawing a pair of walks.
Head coach Chris Rose's EMCC Lions, now 17-21 overall and 7-11 within the division, conclude the home portion of their regular-season baseball schedule by playing host to Holmes Community College in a 4 p.m. Wednesday doubleheader at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.