| EMCC opens 2010 baseball campaign with Sunday home split against Co-Lin |
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SCOOBA – The East Mississippi baseball team opened its 2010 season by splitting a pair of one-run decisions with Copiah-Lincoln Sunday afternoon at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus. The Lions scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out an 8-7 victory in the opener, but couldn't pull off a late-game rally in falling 10-9 in the nightcap.
After trailing the entire opening contest following a three-run first inning by the visiting Wolves off EMCC starter Tyler Richardson, the home-standing Lions cut into a 6-1 deficit by plating two unearned runs in the fifth frame. Co-Lin got one of those runs back in the top half of the sixth, but EMCC reliever Cody Pounders came in to close out the inning and keep it a 7-3 contest by working a scoreless seventh. The Lions’ opening-game comeback began with a leadoff single by Kameron Heiser, followed by back-to-back walks to Drew Vaughan and Tyler Aldridge off Andrew Lee, who relieved Co-Lin starter Jeff DeBlieux at the start of the sixth inning. Mitch Tidwell inherited the bases loaded and promptly forced in EMCC’s fourth run by walking Mitch Bohon. Former New Hope High School standout Hilton Gibson then delivered a two-run single to make it a 7-6 contest. Still without any outs, the Wolves got a temporary reprieve when Rusty McAlister grounded into a double play. Down to their final out, the Lions’ Josh Wedgeworth innocently grounded to third base, but Bud Britt couldn’t field it cleanly and Wedgeworth beat the throw at first to knot the score at 7-7. Catcher David Williams followed with a clutch two-out double over the third base bag to move pinch-runner Wesley Walker to third and set up the game-ending dramatics. Sophomore shortstop Brandon Kiewel served up a looping fly ball to right field that could not be corralled by outfielder Kendall Logan to allow Walker’s winning run to cross the plate. Sunday’s nightcap saw the Wolves take another big lead early in the contest, as the visitors were up by a 10-3 tally heading into the bottom of the third after knocking out three EMCC pitchers. With both pitching staffs struggling with a combined 16 bases on balls through the first three frames, the Lions plated all five runners who had reached base via the free pass in their half of the third to cut the margin to 10-8. A two-out, three-run bloop double by Alex Lummus capped EMCC’s five-run third inning. From the fourth inning on, the second game turned into a pitcher’s duel between Co-Lin’s Drew Weaver and East Mississippi’s Justin Pritchett. A former Northeast Lauderdale product, Pritchett retired 13 of the 15 batters he faced to stymie the Wolves. Coming in relief of starter Marshun Hall in the third, Weaver allowed a two-out RBI single by Aldridge in the fifth inning to pull the Lions to within a single run. EMCC attempted to pull off another seventh-inning rally when Kiewel drew a two-out walk on four pitches to reach base safely for the seventh time in eight tries on the day. Lummus followed with a single to center to give the Lions two runners in scoring position after he advanced to second on the unsuccessful putout attempt of Kiewel at third base. However, Aldridge bounced out to short to end the contest and thwart a second straight last-inning comeback attempt by the Lions. Head coach Tony Montgomery’s 1-1 EMCC Lions will take to the road for trips to Arkansas and Alabama, as they are slated to take part in five doubleheaders over a seven-day stretch (Feb. 18-24) away from home |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 15 February 2010 ) |
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