EMCC Lions set for regular-season finale after fourth straight baseball doubleheader split

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College posted a fourth straight baseball doubleheader split in MACCC action by claiming a 10-7 opening-game home win over Copiah-Lincoln on Saturday before dropping a 3-2 decision to the visiting Wolves the following day at Gerald Poole Field. The twin bill spanned both days of the weekend after rain moved through the area late Saturday afternoon.

Over the past two weeks, EMCC has prevailed in the opening games of conference doubleheaders against Itawamba, Southwest Mississippi, Northwest Mississippi and Co-Lin prior to falling in the nightcaps by a total of just five runs.

EMCC never trailed the visiting Wolves during Saturday's scheduled nine-inning opener. Keyed by Colin Boyd's double, an RBI single by Jon Paul Yates and Evan Radford's sacrifice fly, the Lions made their three-run second inning stand up as the final margin.

After Co-Lin got on the scoreboard with a pair of runs in the third inning off EMCC starting pitcher Cooper Garrison, the Lions got those two runs back two innings later on Jackson Rodgers' two-run single in the fifth inning.

Following the two teams trading two-run at-bats in the sixth inning to maintain EMCC's three-run lead (7-4), the Lions increased the margin to five runs (10-5) a frame later after answering Co-Lin's solo run in the seventh with three more tallies of their own in the home half of the inning.

The Wolves, who out-hit EMCC, 13-7, in the opener, added two runs in the ninth inning to close out the game's scoring.

Yates and Boyd led the Lions with two hits apiece in the opening game, while Garrison improved to 6-3 on the season with seven strikeouts and only one walk in his seven innings of mound work.

The second game of the scheduled doubleheader was postponed to Sunday afternoon after steady rain moved through the Scooba area following the opener. The teams reconvened the next day and engaged in a pitchers' duel in which the EMCC and Co-Lin bats were limited to a combined nine total hits.

With the Lions being slowed by five errors defensively and only managing three hits offensively in the scheduled seven-inning series finale, the Wolves took the initial 1-0 lead in the third inning and then scored the go-ahead run in the seventh both on unearned runs.

The Lions tied the score at 1-1 on Yates' solo homer – his seventh of the year – in the fifth inning and then knotted things up again at 2-2 a frame later on Ty Murphy's pinch-hit sacrifice fly.

After EMCC left the bases loaded in the sixth inning for the second time in the game, the Wolves manufactured the eventual game-winning run with two outs in the top of the seventh off EMCC starting pitcher Drake Bayles. Co-Lin's Braydon Evans was hit by a pitch and then moved to second when Bayles' pickoff attempt got away at first base. Reise Thomas' grounder deep in the hole at shortstop was fielded by Boyd, whose off-balance throw to first allowed pinch-runner Isaac McClenty enough time to score all the way from second base for the go-ahead run.

In his second inning of scoreless relief work in place of Co-Lin starting pitcher Connor Pittman, Coby Gollott retired the Lions in order in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the one-run victory and earn a road doubleheader split for the Wolves.

Bayles was the tough-luck loser for EMCC, evening his record at 4-4 on the year after scattering six hits with seven strikeouts and no walks during his third complete-game pitching effort of the season.

Following a mid-week open date, head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (29-18, 15-11 MACCC) are scheduled to close out their regular-season baseball slate by playing host to second-ranked East Central on Saturday (April 27). First pitch is set for 2 p.m. at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.