EMCC Lions secure conference doubleheader split with 10-5 home baseball win over Itawamba

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College earned a home conference doubleheader split with Itawamba by claiming a 10-5 opening-game win during Tuesday's MACCC baseball action played at Gerald Poole Field. The visiting Indians prevailed over EMCC, 3-1, in the weather-delayed nightcap.

A seven-run fourth inning that featured eight consecutive hits provided the difference in the opening game for the home-standing Lions. In contrast, a pitchers' duel in the second contest limited EMCC and ICC to only seven combined hits between the two teams.

The Lions and Indians traded solo scores through the first three innings of the opening game. Miles Mitchell's sixth home run of the year in the first frame was answered an inning later by Tyler Pickens' RBI double. After getting the run back in the third inning, EMCC then batted around during a fourth frame that produced seven runs with eight straight hits. Caidan Bullard's two-run homer – his seventh of the season – capped the inning that also featured run-scoring hits from Logan Flaskamp, Gabe Roberts and Mitchell.

Flaskamp's sacrifice fly a frame later stretched EMCC's lead to 10-1 after five innings of play.

Itawamba reached EMCC starting pitcher Jax Joyner for three unearned runs in the seventh inning to cut into the deficit. Reid Kent's solo home run to open the ninth inning provided the game's final score.

All nine hitters in EMCC's starting batting order hit safely during the opening contest. Sam McClinton Jr. paced the Lions' 15-hit team effort with four singles in as many plate appearances. Mitchell, Bullard and Flaskamp followed with two hits apiece.

Joyner, a freshman right-hander out of Meridian's Clarkdale High School, evened his record at 3-3 on the year by pitching into the seventh inning with six strikeouts and no walks allowed.

The seven-inning nightcap showcased a pitchers' duel between EMCC's Trace Tingle and ICC's Andrew Williams until lightning and subsequent rain showers delayed the game in the sixth inning for approximately 90 minutes.

The Indians grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the second game by scoring solo runs during each of the first two innings. Kent's game-opening double was followed two batters later by Cannon Graham's sacrifice fly. A frame later, ICC's Tre Gunn led off the second inning with a home run.

After managing to get just one runner on base through the first four innings off Williams, the Lions manufactured their only run of the nightcap in the fifth frame. Braxton Whiteside's leadoff hit-by-pitch preceded singles by Jack Willis and Flaskamp that put EMCC on the scoreboard.

The visitors promptly responded in their next at-bat when Kent's home run made it a two-run game in the sixth inning before the inclement weather moved through the area.

When the skies cleared an hour and a half later, ICC brought in Houston Green from the bullpen to face the Lions as play resumed in the home half of the sixth inning. The sophomore right-hander worked through a one-out double by Mitchell in the sixth and a leadoff walk to Whiteside in the seventh to lock down the Indians' 3-1 nightcap win and secure the split.

Tingle was the hard-luck loser for the Lions, scattering four hits – three for extra bases – along with totaling five strikeouts and a walk over six innings of mound work prior to the stoppage of play.   

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (14-23, 8-6 MACCC) will play Friday (April 3) at Copiah-Lincoln before returning home to play host to Jones College, April 11, on the Scooba campus.