EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - EMCC Lions split with Mississippi Delta in divisional baseball action

SCOOBA – After claiming a 9-4 win in their opener, the Lions of East Mississippi had to settle for a doubleheader split in dropping a 4-3 nightcap to visiting Mississippi Delta in junior college baseball action Tuesday afternoon at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.

EMCC took an early 3-0 advantage in the first contest, plating an unearned run without the benefit of a hit in the opening frame. The next inning the Lions manufactured two more tallies, with courtesy runner Thomas Hays coming home on a double-steal and Brandon Kiewel scoring a few pitches later on a wild pitch from Delta starter Josh Absher.

After the Trojans got on the board with a solo run the in the fourth on an RBI single by Sam Rustom, the home team broke open the 3-1 affair by scoring five times in the bottom half of the inning. In a frame that also featured doubles by Tyler Aldridge and Alex Lummus, freshman Mitch Bohon, of West Point’s Oak Hill Academy, capped the five-run fifth with his club-leading sixth home run of the season – a towering two-out, two-run blast to left field.

Following a sixth inning in which both teams added solo tallies to make it a 9-2 contest, Delta was able to chase EMCC starter Kameron Heiser after the freshman right-hander surrendered an infield hit and hit back-to-back batters to open the seventh. A third straight hit batsman and a run-scoring single by Spencer Brunson narrowed the gap slightly to 9-4, but freshman Justin Pritchett induced Hunter Bolden to ground into a game-ending double play to seal the victory. Heiser, from West Lauderdale High School, improved his season’s record to 4-1 by allowing seven hits, while striking out five and walking but one, in 6.1 innings of work.

In the nightcap, the Trojans benefitted from some first-inning wildness by EMCC starter Derek Beach, who allowed Alex Day and Brunson to both score on wild pitches after reaching base on back-to-back hits. The Lions got one of the runs back in the second when Aldridge singled home Hilton Gibson, who led off the frame with an infield single and advanced to second on a groundout.

The game became deadlocked at 3-3 with both teams scoring in the third inning. Delta briefly moved ahead 3-1 in the top half of the frame on Brett White’s RBI single to the opposite field. In the home half of the third, Bohon’s one-out double to the left-field gap scored Lummus. Two batters later, Bohon came around to score on Drew Vaughan’s two-out, run-producing single to left field.

In relief of Delta starter Caleb Bradshaw, who went 2.2 innings on the mound, the Trojans received a clutch 2.1 innings of scoreless middle relief work from Jake Linkous. With Delta’s collective bullpen effort limiting just one EMCC base runner to reach scoring position over the final four innings, Brunson capped a 3-for-3 effort at the plate in the nightcap with a two-out, opposite-field RBI double in the sixth inning. A former Starkville Academy standout, Brunson was 5-for-6 in the doubleheader with two doubles and a triple along with four runs scored and two runs batted in.

Continuing the Trojans’ quality bullpen performance, relievers Bo Craig and Garrett Pickens came in to contribute scoreless sixth and seventh innings, respectively, for the visitors. Though he settled down after some early wildness, Beach went the distance for the Lions, scattering nine hits, while fanning eight and walking three, to drop to 2-3 on the season.

At the plate, EMCC was led by Lummus, who was 5-for-6 on the afternoon, including a 3-for-4 effort in the nightcap. For the day, the former Oak Hill Academy product also scored three runs. Bohon and Kiewel each added three hits on the day.

Head coach Tony Montgomery’s 18-12 EMCC Lions, now 5-5 in MACJC North Division play, travel to Senatobia to take on division foe Northwest Mississippi Friday afternoon in a 2 p.m. doubleheader.