EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - EMCC drops baseball doubleheader at Itawamba, 1-0 and 6-1

FULTON – The East Mississippi baseball team was limited to just one run in dropping a road doubleheader to defending state champion Itawamba, 1-0 and 6-1, Saturday afternoon at Crubaugh Field on the ICC campus.

Battling for the fourth and final playoff spot in the MACJC’s North Division along with Holmes and Mississippi Delta, the EMCC Lions enter Wednesday’s critical home twin bill against Holmes with a 7-11 division mark.

Saturday’s first game in Fulton featured a classic pitching duel between two hurlers – EMCC’s Corey Luke and ICC’s Will Irvin - having recently returned to the mound following extended layoffs due to injuries to their pitching arms. Both pitchers threw six innings of shutout baseball before being lifted prior to the seventh inning. Though not figuring in the final decisions, Luke and Irvin gave up five and three hits, respectively, while both right-handers were credited with three strikeouts and two walks.

The visiting Lions had the first opportunity to break the scoreless deadlock in the top half of the seventh inning. Pinch-hitter Billy Autrey drilled a two-out line drive off the right field wall off ICC reliever Joseph Koon, but the dual-sport standout was held to a long single by right fielder Channing Walker. Following a single by Derek Beach and a walk to Alex Lummus, Mitch Bohon’s bases-loaded smash down the third base line was speared by ICC’s Jake Sloan for the inning-ending force out at third.

EMCC reliever Tyler Richardson was not afforded the same type of fortune as he took the mound for the bottom of the seventh. Koon led off the frame by reaching on an infield error and was replaced on the bases by courtesy runner Adam Roye. After being sacrificed to second and advancing to third on a wild pitch, Roye scored the winning run on Colby Moore’s bloop single to short right field.

In the nightcap, the home-standing Indians took an early 2-0 lead with solo tallies in the first and second innings. However, EMCC’s Beach came up big in the second to limit ICC to just the one run after beginning the inning with three straight singles to load the bases.

Though not plating their first run of the day against Itawamba until Hilton Gibson’s two-out RBI double scored Drew Vaughan in the sixth, the Lions let possible scoring opportunities slip away in the third and fifth innings. Following a one-out single by Randy Frederick in the third, Bohon reached base safely and joined Frederick in scoring position via John Gatlin’s throwing error from shortstop. However, freshman Tyler Aldridge fanned to end the inning. In the fifth, catcher Steven Peebles led off the inning with an opposite-field double off the right field wall and was replaced by courtesy runner David Williams. Three batters later, Lummus lined a two-out single to left field, but Williams was thrown out at the plate to end the EMCC threat.

The Indians added four more runs late in the contest on two-run doubles by Irvin and Roye in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively, to improve their division-leading record to 13-5. ICC’s Sloan picked up the complete-game victory in the nightcap, limiting the visitors to six hits while striking out six and issuing but one walk.

Head coach Tony Montgomery’s EMCC Lions, now 20-20 overall, will look to snap their six-game losing skid by playing host to the Holmes Bulldogs in a key 3 p.m. MACJC North Division doubleheader Wednesday at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus. East Mississippi also has remaining divisional two-game sets at Mississippi Delta (April 24) and at home against Northwest Mississippi (April 27).