EMCC Lions drop baseball doubleheader at Copiah-Lincoln despite first-game comeback attempt

WESSON – The visiting Lions of East Mississippi Community College dropped Friday's MACCC baseball doubleheader against Copiah-Lincoln by falling 9-6 in the opening game on a walk-off homer before being run-ruled 11-1 by the Wolves in the nightcap at Walker R. Sullivan Field.

EMCC's only lead of the afternoon came on Caidan Bullard's two-out solo blast off Co-Lin starting pitcher Tanner Blackwell in the first inning of the opening game. Bullard's eighth home run of the year tied him with Colin Boyd for the team lead.

The Wolves answered by taking a 3-1 lead off EMCC starting pitcher Evan Hilliard. Brady White's two-run homer in the second inning was followed a frame later by John Mark Grissom's sacrifice fly.

After a bases-loaded walk to EMCC's Gabe Roberts in the fourth cut the deficit to 3-2, Co-Lin responded with a three-run sixth inning to open up a 6-2 advantage.

The Lions took advantage of three walks allowed by Co-Lin pitching in the seventh inning when Braxton Whiteside's two-out, bases-clearing double pulled the visitors to within a run. A frame later, a sacrifice fly by Sam McClinton Jr. drove home Logan Flaskamp, who had led off the inning with a double, to knot the score at 6-6.

Co-Lin rallied in the bottom of the ninth to walk off with the 9-6 victory on Avery Griffin's game-winning, three-run homer off EMCC's Garrett Pound, who had inherited two base runners and a 2-0 count from Colin Perrigin.

Offensively, EMCC's eight-hit team effort in the opening game was led by Miles Mitchell, Whiteside and Flaskamp with two hits apiece.

The nightcap was dominated by the home-standing Wolves, as they batted around to score five runs in the first inning and sent nine more hitters to the plate a frame later in scoring an additional four runs.

After EMCC got on the board with a solo run in the third inning, Co-Lin capped the day's scoring with back-to-back home runs by Bryan Travis and Caleb Brooks to reach the run-rule margin in the fourth frame.

Jack Willis paced EMCC's hitters in the nightcap with a pair of singles in as many plate appearances.

Following a midweek off from game competition, head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (14-25, 8-8 MACCC) will play host to current third-ranked Jones College on April 11. Saturday's first pitch between the Lions and Bobcats is set for 2 p.m. at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.