EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - EMCC Lions drop baseball doubleheader at Southwest Mississippi

SUMMIT – Despite getting on the scoreboard first in both games, the East Mississippi Community College baseball team was swept at Southwest Mississippi, 6-2 and 4-3, Saturday afternoon.

In the opener, the home-standing Bears answered EMCC’s third-inning run with three of their own in the bottom half of the frame. A bases-loaded wild pitch by Lion starter Kameron Heiser was followed by a two-run single by Southwest’s Luke Gipson.

EMCC sophomore Mitch Bohon, an Oak Hill Academy product, answered Kyle Wheeler’s fifth-inning home run with a solo blast – his second of the year – to cut the deficit to 4-2 in the sixth inning. With starter Ryan Hickman going the distance to earn the win, Southwest sealed the opening-game victory with consecutive run-scoring doubles in the bottom of the sixth.

In the nightcap, the visitors parlayed two hits, a walk along with two Southwest errors into three runs off Bear starter Shelby Johnson in the opening frame. However, the home team responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first off EMCC starter Gabe Franks.

After three scoreless innings, Southwest took advantage of a pair of EMCC miscues to move ahead in the fifth inning. Following singles by Josh Bouldin and Cody Dillard off EMCC reliever Cole Vaughan, the tying run scored on a balk. After Wheeler’s fly out advanced Dillard to third base, the go-ahead run for the Bears scored on a wild pitch.

The Lions did manage to mount a seventh-inning rally off middle reliever Trey Setzer in an attempt to tie the game or possibly reclaim the lead. EMCC set the table with one out with a pair of hits and a hit batsman, but Southwest closer Dylan Gregoire secured the sweep by retiring the next two Lion batters.

With 12 of their first 14 games of the 2011 campaign having been played on the road, first-year EMCC head coach Chris Rose’s 1-13 Lions travel to Poplarville for a Saturday (March 5) road doubleheader against the Wildcats of Pearl River CC. East Mississippi will begin a three-date homestand by playing host to Copiah-Lincoln the following Saturday (March 12) at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.