EMCC Lions claim conference home doubleheader with baseball sweep over Southwest Mississippi

SCOOBA – In their home conference opener, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College earned a Sophomore Day sweep over Southwest Mississippi by claiming 8-2 and 3-1 wins during Saturday's MACCC baseball action played at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field.

Along with featuring a pair of standout starting pitching performances, the home-standing Lions produced balanced hitting in the opening game and came up with a clutch late-game homer in the nightcap to move to 3-1 in conference play on the year.

Third-year sophomore Colin Boyd set the tone offensively for EMCC in the nine-inning opener by smacking his team-leading sixth home run of the year to the opposite field on the first pitch he saw from Southwest starter Matt Newman to lead off the home half of the first inning.

After the Bears knotted the score at 1-1 in their next at-bat on Hayes Loper's RBI single, EMCC starting pitcher Jax Joyner settled down to strike out the side in the second inning. The freshman right-hander, out of Meridian's Clarkdale High School, only allowed two more hits over the next four innings.

The Lions then provided the necessary run support by scoring during four consecutive innings to mount a comfortable margin. Three consecutive run-scoring singles during a three-run third inning were followed by Sam McClinton Jr.'s sacrifice fly a frame later to make it 5-1. Miles Mitchell's fourth homer of the year to lead off the fifth preceded a clutch two-out, two-run single by Jack Willis an inning later to increase EMCC's lead to 8-1.

The Bears managed to plate their second run on Tristain Haynes' solo home run in the ninth inning for the game's final score.   

While recording at least one hit in all eight trips to the plate as a team, the Lions featured 10 different batters contribute to their 13-hit effort during the opening game. Mitchell was joined by fellow sophomore Caidan Bullard and freshman Braxton Whiteside to lead EMCC with two hits apiece.

On the mound for the winners in the opener, Joyner evened his record to 2-2 on the year by scattering four singles over six innings with six strikeouts and three walks. Walker Seymour entered the game in relief in the seventh and picked up his first collegiate save with three strikeouts and no walks allowed over the final three innings.

The seven-inning nightcap featured a pitchers' duel between EMCC's Evan Hilliard and the combined mound efforts of Alden Spencer and Nik Carney from Southwest Mississippi. The game's only run through the first four innings was Hunter Russell's sacrifice fly that plated Bullard, who had singled to lead off the home half of the second inning.

The only other frame that produced any scoring in the second game was the fifth inning. Southwest's Tee Robinson led off the frame with an opposite-field home run off Hilliard to briefly tie the game at 1-1. The Lions promptly countered in their next at-bat when McClinton's two-out infield single was followed by Boyd's two-run, go-ahead home run to put EMCC back on top. The long blast to right field was Boyd's second homer of the day, team-high seventh of the year and 10^th of his EMCC career.

Hilliard, a sophomore right-hander from Saraland, Ala., pitched into the seventh inning before giving way to Ty Harden for the game's final out. Hilliard improved to a team-best 3-0 on the year and moved to 7-3 for his career with his seven-strikeout performance. He allowed only four hits and did not issue a walk. Harden earned his second career save for the Lions.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (9-18, 3-1 MACCC) are scheduled to continue their conference home stand by playing host to the Trojans of Mississippi Delta Community College on Tuesday (March 17). First pitch for Tuesday's EMCC-MDCC twin bill is set for 2 p.m. on the Scooba campus.