| EMCC Lions claim home baseball doubleheader sweep over division foe Mississippi Delta |
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SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College baseball team registered its first doubleheader sweep of the campaign by claiming 7-1 and 8-2 home victories over Mississippi Delta in MACJC North Division action Saturday afternoon at EMCC’s Gerald Poole Field.
In moving to 3-1 in division play on the year, head coach Chris Rose’s Lions plated a pair of runs in the first innings of both contests and never trailed during the afternoon in stretching their win streak to three consecutive games. EMCC opened divisional action earlier in the week by earning a home doubleheader split with Itawamba on Wednesday. “We played two complete games of baseball this afternoon and everything seemed to come together for us today,” Rose noted. “We played very unselfish today with excellent pitching once again along with very good defense and some timely hitting. It’s nice to be 3-1 in conference play, and we’ll need to keep bringing the intensity next week with our road divisional doubleheaders.” In Saturday’s opener against the visiting Trojans, EMCC got things started with four consecutive singles in the bottom of the first inning. Following hits by Tyler Aldridge and Antwan Ratcliff to begin the rally, Alex Chick and Zane Migues put the home team on top 2-0 with back-to-back RBI singles. The Lions added another run in the third when Migues led off with a single, moved up two bases on a wild pitch by Delta starter Brett White and scored on Randy Hornesbuger’s groundout to second. EMCC went ahead 5-0 with two more scores in the fifth. On his way to a 3-for-4 effort in game one and 5-for-8 from the plate for the doubleheader, Chick opened the frame with a double and was singled in by Mitch Bohon, who then came around to score on Rusty McAlister’s opposite-field double. Mississippi Delta finally reached EMCC starter Kameron Heiser in the sixth inning, as pinch-hitter Will Sanders, of Starkville, tripled home Hunter Purpora. A sophomore out of West Lauderdale High School, Heiser settled down to get four of his six strikeouts of the contest over the final two innings to pick up his first win in four decisions on the year. The right-hander scattered six hits, while not issuing a walk, over seven innings to collect the complete-game victory. The Lions plated two more insurance runs in the bottom half of the sixth to account for the final margin in the first game. In the nightcap, EMCC chased Delta starter Andrew Alias early with two runs in the first followed by a three-run second inning. With two out in the first, Chick and Migues reached on infield singles while Hornesbuger walked to load the bases. Bohon, a sophomore out of West Point’s Oak Hill Academy, followed with a two-run single to left field. An inning later, consecutive triples by Tyler Bonaventure and Aldridge succeeded Jake Upton’s leadoff walk. Playing centerfield in the second contest, Heiser then knocked in EMCC’s fifth run of the contest with an RBI single to left. The visitors managed to trim the deficit to 5-2 with single tallies in the second and fourth innings off Lion starter Gabe Franks. However, EMCC sophomore southpaw Cole Vaughan put the clamps on the Trojans after Franks was removed in the fourth by getting pinch-hitter Grant Reifers to fly out to left field in leaving the bases loaded. With Franks, of Columbus’ New Hope High School, evening his record to 1-1 on the year after going 3.2 innings, Vaughan shut down Delta for the remaining 3.1 innings to register his first save of the campaign. The former Heritage Academy product allowed just one hit in relief, while fanning two and not issuing a walk. The Lions pushed across two more runs in the fourth inning to pad the lead to 7-2. With two outs, Aldridge tripled to left-center field for the second straight at-bat and came in to score on Heiser’s subsequent single up the middle. A former Caledonia High School standout, Aldridge went 4-for-6 in the twinbill with four runs scored. A bases-loaded walk to Hornesbuger forced in EMCC’s seventh run of the contest. Migues, who also went 4-for-6 from the plate on the afternoon, scored the Lions’ final run of the day on Bohon’s two-out RBI single in the sixth inning. Bohon finished with a team-best four runs batted in on the day by going 3-for-6 at the plate. Improving to 4-18 overall on the season, the Lions of East Mississippi take to the road next week by taking on Holmes Tuesday (March 22) in Goodman and Coahoma next Saturday (March 26) in Clarksdale. |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 19 March 2011 ) |
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