Combined one-hitter keys EMCC Lions to baseball doubleheader split at Shelton State

TUSCALOOSA – In their first game action in nearly two weeks, the East Mississippi Community College baseball team earned a road doubleheader split at Shelton State Community College Saturday afternoon.  A combined one-hit shutout lifted EMCC to a 7-0 win in the first game, while the Lions fell 7-2 in the nightcap.

Because of schedule adjustments created by the Feb. 2 tornado that caused damage to their home baseball facility on the Scooba campus, the Lions had to play Saturday's twin-bill on the road in Tuscaloosa, where the two teams are slated to play again next Sunday (March 6).   Idle since the team's Feb. 14 doubleheader split with Jackson State (Tenn.) Community College that was played at the University of West Alabama's home field, EMCC will return to the UWA campus in Livingston on Tuesday to take on Southern Union State CC in a 1 p.m. doubleheader.

In Saturday's scheduled nine-inning opener against SSCC, the visitors took an early 2-0 lead on a two-out, two-run double by Austin Lowther in the second inning.  The Lions plated two more runs a frame later to extend the margin to 4-0.

That would be all the run production EMCC would need, as freshman left-hander Jacques Pucheu struck out nine and allowed only a second-inning bloop single to right field through 5.1 innings of work.  Middle reliever Eli Leathers struck out three of the five batters he faced, while Ben Smith nailed down the eighth and ninth innings for the Lions.

For the contest, EMCC's pitching trio did not allow a Shelton State base runner to reach third base while collectively striking out 14 batters and issuing five walks.

The Lions added three more insurance runs in the sixth inning on a bases-loaded walk to Whitt Davis in front of Emil Ellis' two-out, two-run single that capped his 4-for-5 outing at the plate.  Davis went 2-for-4 in the game with two runs batted in and two runs scored.  Jo McNabb added three singles in six at-bats to contribute to EMCC's 12-hit team effort in the opener.

The nightcap saw the home-standing Buccaneers score four times in the second and once in the third off EMCC starting pitcher Whitt Davis before Davis himself cut into the deficit by slamming the Lions' first home run of the season – a two-run shot with Taylor Stafford aboard – in the fourth inning.

Shelton State managed to get those pair of runs right back in the bottom half of the fourth and keep the Lions off the scoreboard the rest of the game en route to the 7-2, seven-inning victory. 

Four SSCC pitchers limited the 2-8 Lions to just three hits in the second game.  Along with Davis' first collegiate homer in the fourth, Stafford had a first-inning single and Marcus Ragan smacked a sixth-inning triple for the visitors.