March 9, 2020
Warrior shortstop Roper Ball slides safely into home to give East Central a 2-1 lead over Jones in game one. (EC Photo)
The East Central Community College Warriors took a pair of non-conference baseball games from the visiting Jones College Bobcats Sunday, March 8, at the Clark-Gay Baseball Complex on the campus in Decatur.
East Central won the opener 7-6 with four runs in the last two innings, and then took the nightcap 11-6 with a five-run bottom of the sixth.
The Warriors improve to 9-7 on the season, while Jones is 4-11.
Trailing 6-3 in game one after six innings, East Central scored a pair of runs in the bottom seventh and eighth innings for the come-from-behind win. A two-run homer by sophomore right fielder Jesse Boydstun (Winston Academy) in the seventh closed the gap to 6-5, and back-to-back RBI doubles in the eighth from sophomore shortstop Roper Ball (Nanih Waiya) and sophomore second baseman Eli Harrison (Newton County) brought in the tying and winning runs.
Ball led the Warriors with three hits, while Boydstun and Harrison had two each. Boydstun drove in three runs.
Freshman right-hander Grant Johnson (Hernando) pitched the final three innings for the win by not allowing the Bobcats a hit or a run.
East Central jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in game two, but it was a five-run bottom of the sixth that sealed the 11-6 win.
Freshman third baseman Amani Larry (Bossier City, La., Parkway), freshman designated hitter Courtland Posey (Port Gibson), and Boydstun all had run-scoring singles as the Warriors built the early lead.
After Jones tied the score 6-6 in the top of the sixth, East Central put the game away with five runs in the bottom of the frame. Freshman catcher R.J. Fletcher (St. Martin) had the game-winning RBI single, Posey drove in two with a single, and two more runs crossed the plate on an error.
Boydstun had three hits in game two, and freshman third baseman Hunter Barrett (Sumrall), sophomore center fielder Dakota Kennedy (Choctaw Central), and Posey had two each. Posey had four runs batted in.
Sophomore right-hander Tanner Knight (Eupora) pitched all seven innings for the win.
East Central is back in action Monday, March 9, when it hosts East Mississippi in a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. at the Clark-Gay Baseball Complex on campus.
MACJC conference play begins Saturday, March 14, when Holmes visits Decatur for a 2 p.m. doubleheader. Both these games can be heard on WKOZ “Cruisin” 98.3 radio and watched via live stream video at www.eccc.edu/eccc-media.
East Central sophomore second baseman Eli Harrison throws out a Bobcat runner in game one action. (EC Photo)
