EMCC Lions earn crucial home doubleheader split with Mississippi Gulf Coast in home baseball finale
Aiming at securing their fourth postseason appearance over the past five years, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College moved another step closer to doing just that by earning a crucial home doubleheader split with Mississippi Gulf Coast during Sunday’s MACCC baseball action played at Gerald Poole Field. In a twin bill postponed a day due to the weekend’s weather forecast, EMCC bounced back with a 16-5 run-rule win in the nightcap after dropping the opener to the Bulldogs by the same score.
SCOOBA – Aiming at securing their fourth postseason appearance over the past five years, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College moved another step closer to doing just that by earning a crucial home doubleheader split with Mississippi Gulf Coast during Sunday's MACCC baseball action played at Gerald Poole Field. In a twin bill postponed a day due to the weekend's weather forecast, EMCC bounced back with a 16-5 run-rule win in the nightcap after dropping the opener to the Bulldogs by the same score.
Sunday's doubleheader split with Gulf Coast puts East Mississippi in sole possession of seventh place within the MACCC's baseball standings with a 14-12 conference mark heading into the final week of the regular season. The top 10 teams, based on the final regular-season MACCC standings, will qualify for next week's scheduled NJCAA Region 23 Baseball Championship. The top two finishers in the regular-season standings will each host a four-team, double-elimination regional tournament. Teams seeded 7-10 within the conference standings will play single-elimination games to qualify for the last two spots in the four-team, double-elimination regional tournaments.
In the scheduled nine-inning opening game against Gulf Coast, the home-standing Lions jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the second inning when Hunter Russell followed Nick McCoy's sacrifice fly with a two-run homer – his third of the year – off MGCCC starting pitcher Griffin Wells.
After the Bulldogs grabbed a brief 4-3 lead the next frame on Anthony Tanner's three-run home run off EMCC starting pitcher Jonas Coleman, the Lions answered with Caidan Bullard's solo home run in the home half of the third before reclaiming the lead the next inning by pushing across another run to make it a 5-4 contest.
The visitors answered a frame later on Erimel Rosado's game-tying RBI triple to knot the score at 5-5 heading into the late innings. As EMCC went through five pitchers in the opener, Gulf Coast sent 15 batters to the plate during an 11-run sixth inning that featured 10 hits and resulted in the contest reaching the run-rule margin.
Bullard and Russell led EMCC's nine-hit team effort with two hits apiece in the opener.
The Lions answered the challenge of bouncing back, especially after the Bulldogs reached reigning MACCC Pitcher of the Week Evan Hilliard for four runs in the first inning of the nightcap. Tanner's sacrifice fly was followed three batters later by Brandon Oakley's three-run blast.
The Lions came right back in the home half of the first inning with four runs of their own off Gulf Coast starting pitcher Riley Hall. Miles Mitchell tripled home Sam McClinton Jr., who had doubled to begin the inning. After Mitchell scored on a wild pitch, Logan Flaskamp doubled in a run ahead of Jack Willis' sacrifice fly.
The Bulldogs went back ahead by a run (5-4) a frame later on Garrett Gardner's solo homer to lead off the second inning. Despite the rough start on the mound, EMCC's Hilliard kept his composure and allowed his offensive unit to take over the game.
The Lions responded in a big way by sending 13 batters to the plate during a nine-run third inning. With seven hits and three walks in the frame, a balked-in run preceded Flaskamp's two-RBI single, Russell's sacrifice fly and McClinton's run-scoring bunt single. The big inning was ultimately capped by Bullard's second grand slam of the season and second homer of the day that increased his team-leading home run total to 11 on the season.
With a comfortable 13-5 lead in hand after the first three frames of the scheduled seven-inning nightcap, EMCC reached the run-rule margin and matched the opening game's final score of 16-5 on Flaskamp's two-out, three-run homer in the fifth inning.
Flaskamp, with six RBIs in the contest, and Coleman paced EMCC's 13-hit offensive effort with three hits each. McClinton and Bullard followed with two hits apiece for the Lions.
Hilliard took advantage of the Lions' third-inning offensive surge by retiring 10 of the last 11 batters he faced, including three scoreless innings with no hits allowed following the leadoff homer in the second frame. The sophomore right-hander, out of Saraland, Ala., finished with seven strikeouts during the shortened complete-game victory to improve his record to 6-1 on the season.
Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions are scheduled to close out their regular season this week at nationally second-ranked East Central. The doubleheader in Decatur was scheduled to be played Tuesday (April 28), but inclement weather postponed the games to later in the week, weather permitting. A rescheduled game day will be determined based on the upcoming weather forecast.
