EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - EMCC Lions close out 2010 baseball campaign with pair of home splits

SCOOBA – The East Mississippi baseball team closed out its 2010 campaign by earning home doubleheader splits with division rival Northwest Mississippi and Bishop State this week at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.

In their season finale on Wednesday, the home-standing Lions bounced back from a 7-4 setback in the first game to claim a 12-2 victory in the nightcap over visiting Bishop State from Mobile, Ala. During Tuesday’s division closer against Northwest, EMCC dropped a 6-4 decision in eight innings in the opener but came back to post a 2-1 win over the Rangers in the second game.

Under the direction of fourth-year head coach Tony Montgomery, the EMCC Lions completed the 2010 campaign with a 23-25 overall record and 9-15 mark within the MACJC’s North Division.

With EMCC splitting up pitching duties by throwing five hurlers in Wednesday’s opener against Bishop State, the Lions were victimized by five errors, including four miscues in the latter stages of the game, in dropping the 7-4 decision to the Wildcats.

At the plate, sophomore Drew Vaughan had three of EMCC’s seven hits in the opener against Bishop State, including an RBI single to cap a three-run first inning for the Lions and a sixth-inning double. Freshman Mitch Bohon, of West Point’s Oak Hill Academy, contributed a two-out, two-run double down the left field line in the first inning.

Trailing 2-1 after four innings in Wednesday’s nightcap against Bishop State, the Lions rallied for four runs in the fifth and then scored seven more times the following frame in batting around to invoke the 10-run mercy rule with just one out.

Columbus native Billy Autrey, the starting center on EMCC’s state championship football team who is headed to UAB, capped his Scooba playing career with a 3-for-4 effort at the plate. Vaughan, a sophomore by way of Columbus’ Heritage Academy, closed out a 5-for-7 afternoon against Bishop State by going 2-for-4 in the nightcap with two runs scored and a two-run single in the Lions’ seven-run sixth inning.

During Tuesday’s opening contest against Northwest Mississippi, the Lions came back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the contest at 4-all by sending 10 men to the plate in the fifth inning. However, after scoring the four runs on just one hit, EMCC couldn’t additionally take advantage of four walks, a wild pitch and an error by leaving the bases loaded in the fifth.

The visiting Rangers took advantage of some wildness from EMCC relievers Andrew Graham and Cody Pounders in the eighth inning. Following three walks and a wild pitch, Drew Griffin stroked a two-out, two-run single to left off Pounders to give Northwest the 6-4 extra-inning triumph.

Tuesday’s division finale proved to be a classic pitching duel between EMCC’s sophomore left-hander Derek Beach and Northwest’s freshman right-hander Tarus Hervey. Both pitchers combined to allow only six hits – all singles – in their complete-game decisions.

With Beach holding the visitors mostly in check through six innings, the Lions managed to produce solo runs in the second and fourth innings with Hilton Gibson and Tyler Aldridge both scampering home on wild pitches. Beach did encounter some danger in the fourth when Tyler Benson and Seth Milliorn led off with consecutive singles. After getting Joel Rich to pop up in the infield, Beach’s shutout was temporarily preserved with back-to-back fielding gems by Vaughan at second base and left fielder Randy Frederick.

While the Lions were still holding onto their precarious 2-0 lead despite managing only a pair of singles, Beach once again ran into trouble in the seventh inning. After Rich opened the frame with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch, Griffin drove him home with a single to right-center. With the potential tying run on base, Beach settled down to strike out both Hunter Parham and pinch-hitter Chris Gullick to seal the 2-1 victory.

A former standout at Heidelberg Academy, Beach went the distance, giving up only four hits with five strikeouts and just one walk, to earn his third win of the season.