East Central Community College’s baseball team rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 4-3 victory in the first game, and withstood a late four-run rally and held on for a 6-5 win in the nightcap to take a pair of contests from Pearl River Community College Friday at the Clark/Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur.
With the sweep, the Diamond Warriors improved to 34-10 overall and 14-6 in the MACJC South Division. EC shares the division lead with Hinds. Jones County is third at 13-7 followed by Gulf Coast (11-11), Pearl River (10-12), Southwest (7-13) and Copiah-Lincoln (3-17).
Quin Stokes of Carthage belted a triple to lead the EC offense in the opener. Other hitters were Donnie Tabb of Neshoba Central, Charles Hill and Richie Long, both of Carthage, Blake Lawson of Biloxi, and Vincent Kortbawi, a product of Hale County High School in Moundville, Ala., singles each. Kortbawi, Hill and Ernie Triplett of Louisville were credited with an RBI each.
Right-hander Tyler Dalton was the winning pitcher and improved to 5-1 on the season. The Winston Academy product hurled the final 1 2/3 innings and allowed one hit. He fanned one batter and walked one. Starter Barry Meeks, also a right-hander, went 5 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on three hits. He fanned four batters and walked one.
In the second game, EC jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and held off a late rally by the Wildcats.
Long led the offense with a double and two singles and had two RBIs. Tabb contributed two singles and Andre Yates of Grenada had a double. Singles each were recorded by Kortbawi, Stokes, Triplett and Darmaal Moore of Stone County. Moore, Kortbawi, Hill and Yates were credited with an RBI each.
Starter Colton Mitchell was the winning pitcher and improved to 6-2 on the season. The southpaw from Lake went six innings and allowed three runs on five hits. He also fanned three batters and walked three. Lefty Willard Bacon of Choctaw Central hurled 1/3 inning and allowed two runs on one hit. He also walked a batter. Long pitched the final 2/3 inning and fanned one batter and walked two.
Next up for the Diamond Warriors are home contests with Copiah-Lincoln Community College at 2 p.m. Tuesday and with Meridian Community College at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Sophomore players will be recognized prior to the Co-Lin doubleheader. The MCC game is a nine-inning contest.
East Central concludes regular season action with Jones County at noon Saturday, May 1 at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson. Two seven-inning contests are scheduled.
The Diamond Warriors are led by head coach Neal Holliman and assistants Michael Avalon and Hunter Vick.