EMCC Lions collect 30 total hits to earn home baseball doubleheader split with Hinds

SCOOBA – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College collected a season-high 19 hits and scored multiple runs in all but one inning of the opening game to cruise to a 14-2 run-rule win and earn a home baseball doubleheader split with Hinds during Saturday's MACCC action played at Gerald Poole Field. The visiting Eagles came back to pull out an 8-7 extra-inning victory over EMCC in the nightcap.

Highlighted by Sam McClinton's 5-for-5 effort at the plate in his return to the EMCC lineup after missing five games with a hand injury, the opening game featured all but one Lion starter getting in on the hit parade. Seven players had multiple hits in the contest for the Lions, with shortstop Miles Mitchell also reaching base during all five plate appearances with three singles through the first three innings along with walking in the fifth and getting hit by a pitch the next frame. His two-run single capped EMCC's three-run third inning. Hitting at the top of the Lions' lineup, McClinton and Mitchell additionally each had three runs scored and three runs batted in apiece.

EMCC freshman Cooper Bates also scored three runs and drove home three runs in the opener with an RBI bunt single in the second inning and a two-run double in the sixth. Ty Murphy, Jackson Rodgers, Luke Sides and Caidan Bullard all added two hits apiece for the Lions in the first game.

The fourth marked the only inning of the opening game in which the Lions did not score at least two runs. A two-run opening frame preceded a pair of consecutive three-run innings. Following the scoreless fourth, EMCC added two runs in the fifth and four more scores the next frame to reach the 10-run rule of the scheduled nine-inning contest.

Freshman right-hander Evan Hilliard was the benefactor of EMCC's opening-game offensive flurry. The Saraland, Alabama product scattered seven hits with three strikeouts and no walks over seven innings to even his season record at 2-2 with his first collegiate complete game on the mound.

The Lions' bats stayed hot to begin the scheduled seven-inning nightcap with three hits during each of the first two frames. After the Eagles answered EMCC's two-run first with a pair of tallies of their own the next frame, the Lions responded with three more runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a brief 5-2 lead. That margin was trimmed to a run following Aiden Swales' two-run homer off EMCC starting pitcher Otis Brooks III in the top of the third inning.

From there, Brooks and Hinds starter Dawson Muenzenmay settled in to toss scoreless innings in the fourth, fifth and sixth frames. The team offenses were held to just one combined hit during that three-inning stretch.

The Lions opted to bring the left-handed Bullard to the mound from his starting first base position three batters into the seventh inning. The Eagles proceeded to take their first lead (7-5) of the day by scoring three runs in the frame on four hits combined with a walk and a costly run-producing wild pitch.

Facing their first deficit of the doubleheader, the Lions provided some two-out excitement for the home fans with four consecutive singles in the bottom of the seventh to knot the score at 7-7. Following hits by Mitchell and Murphy after the first two batters in the inning struck out, Bullard and Rodgers then came through with consecutive clutch RBI hits off Hinds reliever Carson Reed to send the nightcap into an extra inning.

The eventual game-deciding unearned run reached base off EMCC reliever Sam Malone when Hinds leadoff batter Kaleb Lipscomb was awarded first base on a catcher's interference call to begin the eighth inning. After being bunted over to second base by Ryder Molea, Lipscomb advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scampered home a batter later on a two-out wild pitch for the go-ahead run.

Reed secured the twin-bill split for Hinds by retiring the Lions in order during the home half of the extra frame.

Offensively in the nightcap, the Lions had 11 more hits to give them 30 total hits for the doubleheader. Murphy led the way at the plate for EMCC in the second game with a 3-for-4 outing, including run-scoring singles during each of the first two innings. McClinton added two more singles in his two first two at-bats of the nightcap to finish the day hitting a combined 7-for-8 with five runs scored. Bullard and Sides also had two hits apiece in the second contest.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC Lions (15-13, 2-6 MACCC) continue home conference baseball action by playing host to the Coahoma Tigers on Wednesday (March 26). First pitch for the mid-week twin bill is set for 2 p.m. at Gerald Poole Field on the Scooba campus.