EMCC Lions earn season's first win in doubleheader split with Jackson State CC on West Alabama's campus

LIVINGSTON, Ala. – In their scheduled home season opener moved to the University of West Alabama campus because of recent tornado damage sustained to the school's baseball facility in Scooba, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College picked up their first win of the season in splitting a Sunday afternoon doubleheader with Jackson State (Tenn.) Community College at UWA's Tartt Field.

EMCC freshman right-hander Whitt Davis earned a 5-3 complete-game victory in Sunday's opener against JSCC, while the visiting Generals bounced back to salvage the twin-bill split with a 7-3 triumph in the nightcap.

In the opener, Jackson State CC took an early 3-0 lead with a run in the second on Alex Whitwell's RBI single followed by two more scores in the third on run-producing hits by Chris Patterson and Clayton Conner.

The Lions nearly went through the lineup in the bottom of the third off JSCC starter Tyler Gilbert, as a pair of infield errors and three hits produced four runs that put the home team in front for good.  Singles by Drew Golden and Jo McNabb, along with the costly miscues, tied the score at 3-3.  Davis then helped himself at the plate with an RBI single that plated Marcus Ragan and gave EMCC a 4-3 advantage.

EMCC added an insurance run in the fifth after Ragan singled for the second time in the game and came around to score two batters later on Emil Ellis' RBI single.

With the lead, Davis seemed to find his rhythm on the mound by allowing only two baserunners over the final four innings.  Quinn Frost's seventh-inning single was the only hit Davis surrendered during that game-ending stretch.  The Huntsville, Alabama native struck out eight and walked only one while scattering six hits over seven innings of work.

In the nightcap, the Lions answered Jackson State's solo tally in the first inning with a pair of scores in the bottom half of the frame off JSCC starter Alex Ropp.  Ragan's infield hit was followed by consecutive run-producing doubles by Taylor Stafford and Ellis.

The Generals tied the game at 2-2 in the second and then knocked EMCC starter Chance Witt out of the contest in the fourth after Patterson's first of two home runs in the contest.  A frame later, the Lions trimmed the deficit to 4-3 when McNabb led off the fifth with a single and then later scored on Stafford's second RBI of the game.   

The visitors essentially put the game on ice in the seventh inning when Patterson lofted a two-out, three-run homer off EMCC reliever Jay Booth over the left-field fence to provide the final 7-3 margin.

Ragan, a Warren Central High School product, and Stafford, from New Hope High School, each had two hits in the nightcap for the Lions.  As a team, the Lions had eight hits in the nightcap and seven hits in the opener.

Coach Chris Rose's 1-7 EMCC Lions will be back in action Feb. 25 when they entertain Shelton State Community College in a doubleheader to be played at a site to be determined as repair work continues on East Mississippi's wind-damaged baseball facility.