Complete-game pitching efforts headline EMCC Lions’ home baseball sweep over Coahoma

SCOOBA – Complete-game pitching performances by Trace Tingle and Chipper Moore lifted the East Mississippi Community College Lions to their first conference doubleheader sweep of the baseball season with 9-1 and 11-1 home wins over Coahoma during Wednesday's MACCC action played at Gerald Poole Field.

Following three scoreless innings thrown by Tingle and Coahoma starting pitcher Bryson Ford in the scheduled nine-inning opener, the Lions batted around during a four-run fourth inning. Miles Mitchell's two-run single was the only hit in the frame that included six bases on balls.

In between scoring solo runs in the sixth inning on a wild pitch and the eighth on Cooper Bates' RBI single, EMCC batted through the lineup again in the seventh inning to score three times on only one hit. Jackson Rodgers' single to lead off the inning preceded three walks, a pair of hit batsmen and four wild pitches by Coahoma pitching.

Bates, Rodgers and Sam McClinton led EMCC's eight-hit team effort in the opening game with two singles apiece.

On the mound for the Lions in the opener, Tingle went the distance for the fourth time on the year to improve his record to 4-1. The former prep standout from Pascagoula's Resurrection Catholic School scattered five hits while striking out six Coahoma batters and walking just one during his 104-pitch complete game.

The visiting Tigers initially grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning of the nightcap on Gregory Fore's sacrifice fly that plated Kari Michaels after he had singled and advanced to third on Jon Wyatt Massey's hit and subsequent outfield error.

The home-standing Lions responded to Coahoma's unearned run by scoring during each of their final four at-bats of the second contest. Capped by consecutive run-scoring singles by Ty Murphy and Caidan Bullard, EMCC's three-run third inning was followed by two more runs in the fourth on McClinton's RBI single in front of Mitchell's sacrifice fly.

A five-run fifth frame by the Lions was highlighted by Luke Sides' grand slam off Coahoma reliever Justin Hall for his second homer of the season. Evan Hilliard capped EMCC's scoring on the afternoon and initiated the 10-run rule with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly that followed back-to-back hits from Murphy and Bullard.

Murphy paced the Lions' 11-hit team outing in the nightcap by going 3-for-4 at the plate. Bullard and Sides added two hits apiece for EMCC.

Moore was equally efficient on the hill during his 62-pitch effort for the Lions in the second game. The Vardaman native fanned five and only allowed one walk while scattering four hits over six innings of work to even his record to 2-2 on the season.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's 17-13 EMCC Lions (4-6 in MACCC) travel to Ellisville to take on nationally 10^th-ranked Jones College in a Friday (March 28) 2 p.m. doubleheader that has been moved up a day due to this weekend's forecasted inclement weather. A month ago (Feb. 28) in Scooba, the home-standing Lions swept then-No. 12 Jones, 16-11 and 3-1, in non-conference action.