EMCC Lions sweep at Northwest to improve to 5-1 in conference baseball action

SENATOBIA — The Lions of East Mississippi Community College earned their second straight conference baseball doubleheader sweep with 10-5 and 7-1 road wins over Northwest Mississippi during Wednesday's MACCC action played at Jim Miles Field.

Receiving votes in this week's NJCAA Division II baseball poll, EMCC previously swept Copiah-Lincoln, 11-3 and 4-1, this past Sunday in Scooba.

During Wednesday's nine-inning opener in Senatobia, the visiting Lions overcame an early 3-0 deficit by scoring 10 total runs during the middle innings. In the seven-inning nightcap, a lockdown relief pitching effort by Andrew Lewis helped limit Northwest to just two singles to complete EMCC's road sweep over the Rangers.

After Northwest took a 3-0 lead in the opener on a two-run, first-inning single by Wesley Lester followed by Jaylon Buckley's two-out RBI double in the third, EMCC starting pitcher Blake Wren began to settle down on the mound while the Lions' bats started to heat up.

EMCC sent nine batters to the plate during the fourth and fifth innings to plate 10 combined runs and take command of the contest. Two-run, two-out singles by Kade Shannon and Coby Holmes accounted for the Lions' four runs in the fourth frame. An inning later, Shannon's three-run homer – his third of the season – keyed a six-run fifth inning for the visitors that also included a two-run single by Trey Trosclair and a bases-loaded walk to Beau Bates.

Wren took advantage of his team's offensive production to pitch into the seventh inning before giving way to Jonah Caskey. Wren struck out eight and walked four in scattering five hits to collect his second win of the season, while Caskey threw the last three innings in giving up three hits with a pair of strikeouts and no walks to earn the save.

Shannon led EMCC's 10-hit team effort with a 2-for-4 outing at the plate with five runs batted in and two runs scored. Trosclair and Wesley Sides also had two hits apiece for the Lions in the opener.

It was the Lions' turn to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the nightcap with two runs in the first inning and a solo score a frame later. Bates' run-scoring ground out was followed by Trosclair's two-out RBI double to open the second game. EMCC then picked up an unearned run in the second inning on Blayze Berry's two-out RBI single.

Sides led off the fifth with his team-leading sixth home run of the year and 11^th of his EMCC career. Holmes added an RBI single later in the inning to make it 5-1. The Lions then added two more insurance runs a frame later to account for the final margin.

While the Rangers plated their lone run of the game in the third inning on Lester's run-scoring ground out, Lewis took over for EMCC starting pitcher Gabe Garner and dominated the rest of the way. The freshman right-hander out of Snellville, Ga., faced one batter over the minimum during the final five innings to earn his first collegiate pitching victory. Lewis had eight strikeouts, fanning two batters in four of the five innings he worked, while only allowing a pair of hitters to reach base. Ryan Lee, who led off the sixth inning with a hit, was erased on a double play. Buckley then walked to open the seventh but was stranded at second.

Coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions, now 5-1 in conference play and 10-9 overall, are slated to play a Saturday (March 26) doubleheader at Southwest Mississippi beginning at 2 p.m. in Summit.