EMCC’s winningest baseball season in 10 years comes to a close at No. 12 Jones
East Mississippi Community College’s winningest baseball season in 10 years came to a close during Monday’s 5-1 series-clinching road setback against 12th-ranked Jones College in an NJCAA Region 23 best-of-three playoff series played at Community Bank Park.
ELLISVILLE – East Mississippi Community College's winningest baseball season in 10 years came to a close during Monday's 5-1 series-clinching road setback against 12th-ranked Jones College in an NJCAA Region 23 best-of-three playoff series played at Community Bank Park.
Making their third consecutive postseason appearance under head coach Brett Kimbrel's guidance, the seventh-seeded Lions forced Monday's rubber game after knotting the series at a game apiece with Sunday's 6-5 victory over the fourth-seeded Bobcats. EMCC was able to even the series after rebounding from Saturday's tough-luck, extra-inning 3-2 loss that featured a masterful complete-game pitching gem by the Lions' Cooper Garrison.
Riding the momentum from Sunday's bounce-back victory over home-standing Jones, the Lions staked starting pitcher Chipper Moore to a 1-0 lead in the series finale without the aid of a hit by taking advantage of three walks and a hit-batsman in the second inning.
Two innings later, the Bobcats' first six batters all reached base safely on the way to taking a 3-1 advantage before an out was recorded on Gavin Brassfield's two-run double followed two batters later by Josh King's RBI single.
That was all the offense Jones would need in the rubber match, as starting pitcher Eli Walker and reliever Brice Deaton combined to keep EMCC hitless until back-to-back, two-out singles from Aiden Fancher and Zac Butler in the seventh inning. The only other hit the Lions could muster on Monday was Coby Holmes' double the following frame.
EMCC freshman Luke Sides held the Jones offense in check during 4.1 innings of timely relief work, but the Bobcats were able to manufacture a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning to help finish off the Lions' 30-22 season.
On the heels of Saturday's hard-fought, 10-inning setback, the Lions found themselves in an early hole during Sunday's contest. Following their three-run opening frame, the Bobcats went up 4-0 an inning later on Brady Thomas' solo home run off EMCC starting pitcher Drake Bayles.
The Lions responded in their next at-bat by scoring three runs in the third inning off Jones starter Trent Hillen. Butler's leadoff homer was followed by Holmes' RBI double and a sacrifice fly by Ayden Alsobrooks.
EMCC then knotted the score at 4-4 the next frame on Fancher's fourth home run of the year and 10th of his career.
Following three scoreless innings for both teams, the Lions reached Jones reliever Micah Daniell for a pair of runs in the eighth on consecutive run-scoring singles by Butler and Ty Murphy.
After the Bobcats pulled within a run (6-5) in the home half of the eighth on Wade Fulton's two-out RBI single, EMCC's Landon Scruggs stranded two Jones runners on base for the second straight inning. Scruggs then left the potential tying run at third base in the bottom of the ninth to earn the victory and improve his team-leading record to 7-1 on the year.
Marking their 30th overall win of the season – the most by an EMCC team since the 2014 season – the Lions' 10-hit team effort in Sunday's series-tying victory was led by Butler, Holmes and Murphy with two hits apiece.
Behind Garrison, the Lions took a 1-0 lead in Saturday's series opener on Evan Radford's two-out RBI single in the fourth inning off Jones starting pitcher Beau Bryans.
After Thomas' two-run homer in the sixth inning put Jones in front, 2-1, EMCC answered with a game-tying unearned run the next frame.
Despite giving up the temporary go-ahead run in the sixth, Garrison settled down to strike out nine of the next 12 batters he faced to extend the opener to an extra frame.
After Deaton, who pitched in all three contests for Jones, stranded a pair of EMCC baserunners in the top of the 10th inning, the Bobcats pushed across the game-winning run on Marquette Gibson's grounder to short that plated pinch-runner Josh King from third base.
Garrison absorbed the hard-luck loss for the Lions and fell to 6-4 on the season. The sophomore right-hander out of Gulfport scattered six hits, while striking out 11 without issuing a walk, during his 130-pitch, complete-game performance. With Garrison coming off a career-high, 12-strikeout effort in his previous outing against East Central, nine of his 11 strikeouts versus Jones came during the game's last five innings.
At the plate for EMCC in the series opener, Radford had three of the Lions' five hits in Saturday's contest with a double and two singles.
