Cade Davis’ complete game lifts EMCC to 2-1 nightcap win in baseball split at Delta

MOORHEAD — East Mississippi Community College's baseball team earned a road doubleheader split with Mississippi Delta during Tuesday's MACCC action played at the Jimmy Bellipanni Baseball Complex.  The EMCC Lions countered Delta's 7-4 opening-game win with a 2-1 nightcap victory over the home-standing Trojans.

After the visitors' comeback attempt fell three runs short in the nine-inning opener, the nightcap featured an old-fashioned pitchers' duel between freshman right-handers Cade Davis of EMCC and Delta's Haden Luke.  Both starting pitchers went the distance for their respective teams during the seven-inning contest.

The Lions got on the board first in the second game when Braxton Lee's groundout plated Zack Griffith in the second inning.

A trio of singles off Davis evened things up in the bottom of the fifth for Delta.  Julian Murphy's lead-off single was followed by consecutive one-out hits from Davon Mims and Kieran Theriot to knot the score at 1-1.  With runners at the corners, Davis was able to minimize the fifth-inning damage by getting the next two batters to fly out.

EMCC countered in its next at-bat by manufacturing the go-ahead run.  After Austin Beech walked and Wesley Sides was hit by a pitch to open the sixth inning, Blayze Berry's one-out single drove home Beech with the eventual winning run.

Davis then retired the Trojans in order during their final two at-bats to improve his record to 6-1 with his fourth complete game of the year.  The Ripley High School product scattered six hits over seven innings with three strikeouts and only one walk.

The opening contest featured a gutsy complete-game pitching performance by Delta's Landon Comer, though infield errors by the visitors also contributed to the game's ultimate outcome.

After the Trojans went ahead with a solo run in the first inning, EMCC took a short-lived 2-1 lead by scoring once in the fourth and fifth frames.  Rye McGlothin's two-out, solo homer in the fourth was followed an inning later by Al Dumas' sacrifice fly.

Aided by a pair of costly EMCC miscues during the middle innings, Delta proceeded to reclaim the lead by scoring three runs in the fifth and sixth innings off EMCC starting pitcher Will Long.  Three singles helped the Trojans' cause in the fifth, while consecutive extra-base hits by Tanner Johnson and Blayne Clark to open the sixth set the stage for a second straight three-run inning.

Trailing 7-2 after seven innings, the Lions battled back to make things interesting down the stretch.  McGlothin's two-run blast in the eighth – his second homer of the game and team-leading ninth of the season – cut the deficit to 7-4.  Lead-off singles by Beau Bates and Griffith in the ninth then brought the potential game-tying run to the plate with no outs.  However, Delta's Comer responded in the clutch by inducing a fly out and a game-ending double play to finish out his complete-game effort.

Winners of eight of their last 10 games, Coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions, 18-14 overall and 11-13 in conference play, are scheduled to close out their regular-season baseball slate with doubleheaders against Jones College this Saturday (April 17) in Scooba and the following Saturday (April 24) at Hinds.  The EMCC-Jones twin bill is set for a 2 p.m. start at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.