No. 3 seed EMCC Lions to host No. 8 seed East Central in best-of-three baseball playoff series

SCOOBA — On the heels of posting a third-place finish within the MACCC's regular-season baseball standings, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College will begin postseason competition this week (May 5-7) by playing host to the eighth-seeded East Central Community College Warriors in an NJCAA Region 23 best-of-three playoff series on the Scooba campus.

Game times are scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday and Friday at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field, with a 2 p.m. Saturday contest, if needed, to decide the series. The series will also be livestreamed at www.EMCCAthletics.com/live.

The EMCC-ECCC series is one of four best-of-three baseball playoff series taking place around the MACCC ranks this week. With nationally top-ranked Pearl River receiving an opening-round bye and earning the right to host the upcoming NJCAA Region 23 Tournament (May 16-20) in Poplarville, this week's other baseball playoff series will have No. 2 seed Meridian hosting No. 9 Northwest Mississippi, No. 4 seed Hinds hosting No. 7 seed Mississippi Gulf Coast, and No. 5 seed Northeast Mississippi hosting No. 6 seed Jones.

Guided by fourth-year head baseball coach Brett Kimbrel, East Mississippi's 20-8 MACCC record this season is the program's best conference mark since the 2015 EMCC squad (29-18; 20-8 MACJC) finished as regular-season conference runners-up and placed third in the conference tournament on the way to making the program's first NJCAA Region 23 Tournament appearance since 2004 and earning a second straight No. 18 season-ending national ranking in the NJCAA Division II baseball poll.

With an overall record of 25-16 during the regular season, the EMCC Lions swept seven conference doubleheaders in addition to earning six twin-bill splits, including East Central, and only getting swept by Northeast Mississippi on the year. EMCC opened the 2022 conference slate at home by splitting with then-No. 5 ECCC back on March 11. The two teams combined for 24 runs scored, 32 hits and seven home runs, including a season-high five homers by the Lions, but the visiting Warriors prevailed, 14-10, in game one. The home-standing Lions came back to earn the split with a 9-3 nightcap win over East Central.

Offensively, the EMCC Lions enter postseason play hitting .282 as a team with all infield starters plus freshman center fielder Ethan Medlin hitting .297 or better for the season. Currently riding a 14-game hitting streak, Medlin, from Lake Charles, La., leads the Lions in batting average (.376) and on-base percentage (.519) as the team's leadoff hitter, including 17 hit-by-pitches and 21 walks. He also owns a .556 slugging percentage with six doubles and five homers.

As a team, East Mississippi ranks 12^th nationally in NJCAA Division II baseball and second in the MACCC with 54 home runs heading into the postseason. With eight different players with four or more home runs on the year, EMCC is presently being led in the power department by sophomore first baseman Wesley Sides (.329) with a team-high nine homers, including two in the opening conference game against East Central in March. The DeSoto Central High School product also tops EMCC's hitters with eight doubles, 17 extra-base hits and 32 runs batted in (tied with two others), along with pacing the team in slugging percentage (.579), runs scored (40) and walks (26).

East Mississippi is headlined by one of the MACCC's premier two-way players in sophomore shortstop/pitcher Blayze Berry, who owns the Lions' top pitching record at 5-1 with two saves while also currently ranking as the team's No. 2 hitter with a .355 batting average. On the mound, the UAB signee out of Columbus' Heritage Academy owns a 2.59 earned run average with 51 strikeouts and only seven walks in 55 2/3 innings of work for the season. In addition, Berry completed all six of his conference starting assignments during the regular season, while opponents are only hitting a collective .196 off the right-hander. At the plate, Berry paces EMCC with 54 hits and 82 total bases (7 homers & 5 doubles) and is tied for the club lead with 32 RBIs, along with ranking second on the team with 37 runs scored and 11 stolen bases.

Other multi-homer starting position players for the Lions include sophomore third baseman Trey Trosclair (.297, 8 HR & 32 RBI), freshman second baseman Coby Holmes (.310, 7 HR & 26 RBI), sophomore outfielders Beau Bates (.275, 6 HR & 30 RBI) and Hunter French (.254, 4 HR & 22 RBI), as well as sophomore catcher Kade Shannon (.220, 4 HR & 17 RBI).

Along with Berry's team-high five pitching victories on the year, East Mississippi also features four-win hurlers Cade Davis (4-1), Kylan Stepter (4-3 & 1 save) and Jonah Caskey (4-0 & 1 save) plus a trio of two-win pitchers in Blake Wren (2-1), Andrew Lewis (2-3 & 2 saves) and Gabe Garner (2-1). Davis, a 6-foot-6 sophomore right-hander out of Ripley, has struck out 50 and walked only 14 in 56 1/3 innings pitched with complete-game efforts during each of his last three outings.