EMCC Lions earn baseball doubleheader split against Holmes in Vicksburg

VICKSBURG — The Lions of East Mississippi Community College split an MACCC baseball doubleheader with Holmes by claiming an 11-7 win in the opener and dropping a hard-luck 4-3 nightcap decision during Wednesday's conference action played at Sports Force Park.

The mid-week baseball twin bill was relocated to Vicksburg due to tornado damage sustained on Holmes' Goodman campus last month.

With Jonah Caskey earning the start on the mound, EMCC controlled the nine-inning opening game by jumping out to a 10-0 lead after three frames. Following Wesley Sides' RBI double in the first inning, Kade Shannon's leadoff home run – his fourth homer of the year – off Holmes starting pitcher Cordarius Brown ignited a five-run second inning. The Lions then reached double digits in runs a frame later on Beau Bates' two-run double coupled with sacrifice flies by Blayze Berry and Trey Trosclair.

The Bulldogs got back in the game during the middle innings with four runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth. Cole Drake's three-run homer was the big blow in the fourth inning, while Holmes further cut into the deficit a frame later with the help of two walks and a hit-by-pitch by EMCC's middle relievers.

The Lions managed to score the only run over the game's final four innings on Ethan Medlin's two-out, run-scoring single in the sixth.

Meanwhile on the mound for EMCC, Grant Johnson held the Bulldogs' bats in check for the remainder of the contest. The Hernando product allowed only a ninth-inning single over the last four frames of his five-inning closing stint to earn the save.

The Lions' offensive showing in the opener was headlined by Wesley Sides (4-for-6) and Medlin (3-for-6), who combined for half of the team's 14 hits.

Following a lengthy lightning delay between games, Holmes utilized a pair of early two-run homers and held on for the narrow nightcap victory despite an otherwise stellar pitching performance by EMCC's Cade Davis. A leadoff infield error in the second inning preceded Kenneth Moore's two-run homer. A two-out walk a frame later was then followed by Reese Smith's two-run shot to put the Bulldogs in front 4-0.

As Davis settled down to retire the last 10 Holmes batters in order following the second home run, including seven strikeouts, the Lions began to chip away at the deficit one run at a time. After EMCC manufactured an initial run in the fourth inning, Berry's sacrifice fly a frame later cut the lead in half. Hunter French's fourth homer of the year to lead off the seventh inning then made it a one-run game. Medlin followed with a single, but Hankins – Holmes' sixth pitcher of the game – retired the next three batters to deny EMCC's comeback attempt.

Davis, from Ripley, moved to 3-2 on the year with the tough-luck setback. The sophomore right-hander only allowed three hits over six innings while striking out 10 and walking just one. 

Still in second place two games behind front-running Pearl River in the current MACCC baseball standings, head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (20-15, 15-7 MACCC) travel to Ellisville for a Saturday (April 23) doubleheader at Jones College. They will then close out the regular season with a week-long home stand by playing host to Mississippi Delta on Tuesday (April 26) and Hinds on Friday (April 29). Both upcoming home twin bills will begin at 2 p.m. at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.