EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - East Mississippi drops 2-1 and 3-2 baseball heartbreakers at Bevill State

FAYETTE, Ala. – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College dropped a pair of one-run baseball decisions Friday afternoon at Bevill State, falling 2-1 and 3-2 in contests that both went down to the visiting team’s final at-bat.

In the first game, the Lions had the potential tying run on third base in the top of the seventh, but Antwan Ratcliff was left stranded after reaching on a walk. Down 2-0 in the previous inning, EMCC began the sixth by loading the bases on successive singles by Stephen Hudson, Tyler Bonaventure and Ismael Reyes. However, the visitors were only able to manage a two-out RBI single by former West Lauderdale product Rusty McAlister.

Sophomore right-hander Will Edwards, of Kosciusko, took the opening-game loss for the Lions, allowing but two runs on just three hits before being relieved by freshman Zane Migues in the fourth inning. Migues held the Bears hitless the rest of the way, as EMCC out-hit Bevill State, 7-3, in the opener.

“We threw the ball very well today, but we did have some other lapses that cost us,” EMCC head baseball coach Chris Rose said. “We will work on being more aggressive at the plate as well as eliminating nonproductive at-bats.”

In Friday’s nightcap, the Lions took an early 1-0 lead on sophomore Hilton Gibson’s first home run of the season. The former New Hope standout now has three career homers for the Lions.

After Bevill State moved ahead 3-1 after scoring two runs in the fifth and adding another tally the following frame, the Lions once again had the opportunity to tie the game or even take the lead in the top of the seventh. With two outs, EMCC proceeded to load the bases on back-to-back singles by Mitch Bohon and Tyler Aldridge followed by Hudson reaching on a hit-by-pitch. After Bonaventure walked to force in a run, Gibson’s liner to the right-center field gap was snared to end the contest.

Sophomore starter Kameron Heiser, also a West Lauderdale product, dropped his first decision of the year after giving up seven hits with six strikeouts pitching into the fifth inning.

Looking for their first victory in Rose’s first season at the EMCC baseball helm, the 0-4 Lions travel to Ellisville to take on the defending MACJC South Division champion Jones County Bobcats Saturday afternoon. The scheduled doubleheader is set to begin at 2 p.m. at the new $2.8 million Community Bank Park on the JCJC campus.