EMCC Lions falter late in long-awaited home baseball opener to drop 9-8, 14-0 doubleheader to East Central

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College's long-awaited home season baseball opener didn't quite go as planned Saturday afternoon at Gerald Poole Field.  Delayed from playing on the Scooba campus for nearly two months because of tornado damage sustained to their home baseball facility, the Lions let a 5-0 opening-game lead slip away in the late innings and were then victimized by an 11-run third inning in the nightcap to drop a 9-8, 14-0 doubleheader to visiting East Central Community College.

After having played their first 28 games of the season away from campus, the Lions were in complete control for the first two-thirds of the nine-inning opening contest against East Central.  Sophomore right-hander JC Redden didn't allow a hit through the first four innings, while his EMCC teammates staked the New Hope High School product to a 5-0 lead heading into the seventh inning.

Freshman Whitt Davis drove in the second of two runs scored in both the first and third innings with an RBI single and a solo home run, respectively, off ECCC starting pitcher Brock Morris.  Davis' smash over the left-field wall in the third was the third homer of the year for the Huntsville, Alabama native.  The Lions added an unearned run in the sixth to extend the lead to 5-0.

After an infield error opened the door for three East Central runs in the top of the seventh, the visitors chased Redden the next frame.  Moving to the mound from his starting left-field position, fellow former New Hope standout Taylor Stafford struggled in relief by surrendering three straight singles followed by back-to-back walks during a six-run eighth inning by the Warriors.

Trailing 9-5, the Lions fought back the final two frames to set up a heartbreaking conclusion for the home team.  After cutting the deficit in half in the eighth on Mike Farnell's key two-out, two-run single, EMCC got things going again in the ninth with Stafford's one-out double followed by pinch-hitter Chance Witt's clutch two-out RBI single to make it a 9-8 contest.  Former Oak Hill Academy standout Joseph Caskey promptly followed with another pinch-hit single, but ahead of the play pinch-runner Antoine Watts was thrown out from center field when trying to get back to second base after the hit.

Davis and Stafford led EMCC's 12-hit team effort in the opening game with three and two hits, respectively, in five at-bats apiece.

The Warriors maintained their momentum into the nightcap by first chasing EMCC starter Whitt Davis from the mound with three runs in the second on RBI singles by Nathan Roseberry and Brandon Clark.  After going through the batting order in the second, East Central then emphatically put away the second game early with a prolonged frame that saw the visitors send 16 batters to the plate during an 11-run third inning.   As a trio of EMCC pitchers struggled with control problems by combining for four walks and three hit-batsmen to go along with five East Central hits and an infield error, the first 11 Warrior batters all reached base safely before the first out was recorded in the inning.

Meanwhile on the hill for the visitors, sophomore right-hander Peyton Cain limited the Lions to just four hits over five innings during East Central's 14-0 run-rule victory in the nightcap.  EMCC was only able to manage singles from Stafford, Caskey and Emil Ellis along with a pinch-hit double by Zack Boone.

With 11 hits as a team during each contest of the doubleheader sweep, the ECCC Warriors improved to 24-12 overall and 12-6 in MACJC play.

Coach Chris Rose's EMCC Lions, now 10-20 overall and 6-8 in conference action, stay at home to play host to the Tigers of Northeast Mississippi on Wednesday.  First pitch is set for 4 p.m. on the Scooba campus.