| EMCC Lions drop a pair on the road to reigning state baseball champion Hinds |
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RAYMOND – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College battled reigning state baseball champion Hinds to the final at-bat on the road Tuesday afternoon, dropping close 13-9 and 5-4 decisions to the unbeaten Eagles at Joe G. Moss Field.
In the opener, EMCC rallied from an early 10-1 deficit and challenged through the final innings, while taking the Eagles to an extra inning in the nightcap. “We played good baseball against an excellent baseball team on the road,” EMCC head coach Chris Rose noted. “I was proud with the way we responded to getting down early in the first game. We continued to fight and we’re competing with some very good baseball teams right now. This demanding early schedule should really benefit us come division play.” The Lions did indeed get down early in Tuesday’s opener, as the home-standing Eagles chased EMCC starter Will Edwards by sending 13 batters to the plate in a nine-run third inning. All nine hits by Hinds in the inning were singles. To their credit, the visitors rallied from the 10-1 hole by scoring eight runs late to make it a contest down the stretch. Sophomore Mitch Bohon, an Oak Hill Academy product, capped a five-run fifth inning with a grand slam, while freshman Zane Migues completed a 4-for-4 effort at the plate with a two-run single in the sixth. The Lions dug themselves an early hole in the nightcap by allowing two unearned runs in the opening frame on a pair of infield miscues. EMCC responded by batting around in the fourth inning to take a brief 3-2 lead. Freshman Alex Chick, who had a pair of singles in the opener, loaded the bases with a single on the heels of back-to-back walks to Antwan Ratcliff and Tyler Aldridge to open the inning. Hilton Gibson, Migues and Noah Greer each stroked run-scoring singles in the fourth but were all left stranded on the bases. After the defending state champions reclaimed the lead with two runs in the fifth inning off EMCC starter Blake Hutcheson, the Lions knotted the contest at 4-4 on consecutive doubles by Bohon and Migues in the sixth. With a 2-for-4 outing in the second game, Migues, a Lafayette, La., product, finished the doubleheader 6-for-8 at the plate with four runs batted in. The visitors were not able to get a runner in scoring position in either the seventh or eighth innings off Hinds reliever and eventual winner Alex Gunn, who came in for starter Cullen Babin in the sixth. In the bottom of the eighth off EMCC reliever Jake Upton, Hinds’ Tyler Akins led off the inning with a double. After a Morris Grant single, Ryno Martin-nez was walked to load the bases with no outs. Ethan Bright promptly sealed the twinbill sweep for the 8-0 Eagles with an RBI single. The East Mississippi Lions, now 1-11 on the campaign, travel to Summit to take on Southwest Mississippi in a Saturday (Feb. 26) doubleheader set to begin at 1 p.m. |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 23 February 2011 ) |
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