SCOOBA – A comeback 6-5 win in extra innings helped give the East Mississippi Community College baseball team a home doubleheader split against Garden City (Kan.) Community College late Saturday afternoon at Gerald Poole Field.  After claiming the opening game in eight innings, EMCC dropped the nightcap 3-1 to the visiting Broncbusters.

In the opener, the Lions had to battle back three different times before finally rallying from a 5-3 deficit to send the contest into an extra frame with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.  After two costly EMCC errors contributed to Garden City’s go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh, sophomore Holden Watts led off the home half of the seventh with his second double of the game.  Following consecutive fly outs, fellow sophomore transfer Leroy Wilson lined a two-out home run to left field off Colton Kibler to send the opener to an eighth and decisive extra frame.  The game-tying blast was the second homer of the year for the former Columbus High School product.

After Lion reliever Tyler Jones set the visitors down in order in the top of the eighth, Watts completed his 4-for-4 effort at the plate with a single to right field after Zane Migues got things started with a one-out single up the middle.  Two batters later, Aaron Brady singled with two outs to send home Migues with the winning tally.  It was Brady’s third RBI of the game after contributing a sacrifice fly in the third inning to plate EMCC’s first run and then knocking in another run with a fifth-inning groundout.

Jones, of Columbus’ Victory Christian Academy, picked up his second win for the Lions after working the eighth inning.  Blake Roberts, a New Hope product, went the first five innings on the mound, giving up three runs on four hits while striking out four and walking a pair.  Freshman K.C. Abney pitched the sixth and seventh innings, allowing two unearned runs and two hits with three strikeouts.

Tyler Bonaventure and Austin Braddock, of Heritage Academy, added two hits apiece during the Lions’ 11-hit team effort in the opener.  Bonaventure led off the sixth inning with a double to left field, before Braddock drove him home with a single to center to knot the score at 3-3 and set up the late-game dramatics.

Though they out-hit Garden City, 6-5, in the second contest, the Lions couldn’t recover from a three-run fourth inning by the visitors.  EMCC also was not able to solve winning pitcher John Houston, who struck out 10 Lion batters en route to the complete-game victory for the Broncbusters.

The fourth frame started off innocently enough for the home team with EMCC starting pitcher Dillon Hawkins getting Cody Kottich to ground out to first and striking out Shea Bell.  However, Dakota Kell and Zac Baldini started the rally with back-to-back doubles to left field.  Following a walk and hit batsman to load the bases, Desmond Roberts doubled to right field off middle reliever Landon Meadows to give the visitors their 3-0 lead.

The Lions weren’t able to reach Houston for their lone run of the nightcap until the bottom of the seventh when Migues lined his first collegiate home run to left field.

Bonaventure, of Brusly, La., had two more hits in the second game to cap his 4-for-6 effort at the plate for the day.  Columbus’ Josh Tentoni had a third-inning double, while Braddock got EMCC’s first hit of the nightcap with a leadoff single in the second.

Having recently picked up two wins by forfeit from their Feb. 28 road doubleheader against Mississippi Gulf Coast, head coach Chris Rose’s 7-9 EMCC Lions will begin MACJC North Division play with a Wednesday road doubleheader against the Holmes Bulldogs in Goodman.  East Mississippi will then enjoy a week-long home stand by first playing host to Northwest Mississippi Community College in a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday (March 17) on the Scooba campus.  The Lions are also slated to entertain Southwest Mississippi CC and division rival Itawamba Community College on Tuesday (March 20) and Saturday (March 24), respectively, of the following week at EMCC’s Gerald Poole Field.