EMCC Lions sweep 12th-ranked Jones, 16-11 and 3-1, in home non-conference baseball action

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College's baseball team successfully capped off a demanding home week against preseason-ranked MACCC competition by sweeping 12^th-ranked Jones College, 16-11 and 3-1, during Friday's non-conference action played at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field.

Rebounding from double-digit home setbacks to second-ranked East Central and No. 20 Meridian, 11-1 and 13-3, respectively, earlier in the week, EMCC prevailed twice two days later against the Jones Bobcats. The Lions opened the day by scoring a season-most 16 runs on 17 hits, including 10 extra-base hits for a season-high 31 total bases. The two teams combined for 27 runs on 30 total hits in the nine-inning slugfest. EMCC and JC then came back in the nightcap to engage in a seven-inning pitcher's duel in which freshman Trace Tingle picked up the complete-game victory for the home-standing Lions.

In an opening game that only had five scoreless half-innings in the 17 combined at-bats between the two teams, EMCC grabbed an early 4-0 lead in the first frame off Jones starting pitcher TJ Dunsford with the aid of a pair of infield errors by the visitors. The Bobcats evened the score at 4-4 with three runs in the second inning on Gage Reeves' bases-clearing double followed the next frame by Dunsford's leadoff solo blast.

Jones answered EMCC's single tally in the fourth with three runs an inning later to grab its lone lead (7-5) of the contest. The Lions reclaimed their lead (10-7) for good midway through the game by batting around during a five-run fifth inning. Started by Miles Mitchell's leadoff triple, the frame also included consecutive RBI doubles from Josh King and Jackson Rodgers as well as Caidan Bullard's first collegiate home run.

The high-scoring contest continued during the late innings, highlighted by EMCC's three-run seventh that featured a bases-clearing double by Bullard to give him three extra-base hits in the game. Adding two more runs in the eighth, the Lions took a seemingly safe 16-9 lead into the final frame. The Bobcats made things interesting in the ninth by taking advantage of a pair of walks and a hit batsman to score twice before EMCC reliever Luke Sides was able to strand the bases loaded and lock down the five-run win.

Six Lion batters had multiple hits in the opening victory, including Bullard, Mitchell, King, Rodgers and Sides all with three hits apiece. Bullard, who improved to 2-0 on the mound with the win, also drove in four runs with his solo homer and two doubles. King, a catcher who transferred from Jones College, smacked three doubles against his former Bobcat teammates.

In contrast to the offensive showdown to begin the day, the nightcap proved to be a classic pitching duel between EMCC's Tingle and Drew Lambert of Jones. Tingle, a freshman left-hander out of Pascagoula's Resurrection Catholic High School, struck out seven and walked only one while scattering four hits over seven innings to improve to 2-0 on the year with the complete-game victory.

The second game's minimal offense was initiated by Gabe Roberts' two-run double in the second inning for the Lions. Jones College's unearned run in the top of the fifth inning was answered in the home half with a clutch two-out RBI single by Hugh LeMasters, who had two of EMCC's five hits in the nightcap.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's 12-6 EMCC Lions are scheduled to conclude the non-conference portion of their 2025 baseball slate by taking on Northwest Mississippi and fellow MACCC foe Coahoma during Tuesday's round-robin event to be played in Senatobia. The Lions are slated to take on the Coahoma Tigers at 2 p.m. before meeting the host Northwest Rangers in the nightcap at Jim Miles Field.