March 25, 2018
ECCC freshman outfielder Deon Leflore (No. 1) is congratulated as he crossed home plate after hitting a grand slam in game one against Holmes. (EC Photo)
East Central Community College’s Wyatt Ball continued his torrid hitting of late with a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning to propel the Warriors to a 3-2 win in the nightcap and an MACJC doubleheader sweep over the visiting Holmes Community College Bulldogs on Saturday, March 24, at the Clark-Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur.
Freshman George Farid (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) hit a two-run homer and fellow freshman Ken Scott of Clarkdale followed with a game-winning single in the bottom of the eighth inning to give East Central a come-from-behind 10-9 win in the opener.
East Central remains undefeated in MACJC play at 6-0. The No. 13 ranked Warriors are now 17-5 overall on the season. Holmes fell to 15-7 overall and 3-3 in the league.
The Warriors are currently riding a six-game winning streak.
In the nightcap, the game went to the bottom of the seventh inning tied 2-2. With two outs and two strikes, Ball laced a single to centerfield scoring freshman Anderson Shelley (Greenville Washington School) from second and giving the Warriors the 3-2 win.
Ball, a sophomore infielder/outfielder who prepped at Nanih Waiya, had a hot week at the plate. In the Warriors four wins, he hit .625 with three doubles, a homer, eight RBI, and six runs scored.
East Central’s only other runs in the second game came on a Ball RBI single in the first inning and a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Jacob Edwards (Newton County) in the second.
The Warriors fell behind 4-1 after three innings of game one. That all changed in the bottom of the fourth when six runs crossed the plate including four on a grand slam to deep center from freshman Deon Leflore out of Leake Central. Freshmen Alex Hay of Lewisburg and Zack Hutchison of Ellisville both singled in runs in the big fourth.
Holmes wouldn’t quit. The Bulldogs battled back to take a 9-7 lead that held up until the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Farid hit his two-run homer to leftfield to tie the game 9-9. After Ball doubled, Scott’s single brought him home with what would be the winning run.
Sophomore right-hander Kolby Crowley of East Webster picked up the win in game one throwing three scoreless innings in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.
Sophomore right-hander Dylan Marsh out of Lake Cormorant came on late in both ballgames to earn a save and a win. The current MACJC Pitcher of the Week pitched the ninth inning of the opener to earn the save and came on to pitch the final two innings of the second game to record the win. Over the three innings he pitched, Marsh threw just 27 pitches, giving up one hit, no runs, and striking out four batters.
The Warriors will face two tough road tests next week. East Central visits No. 3 Jones County Junior College for a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 27, in Ellisville. First pitch is at 3 p.m. East Central will then travel to Moorhead to face Mississippi Delta Community College on Friday, March 30, at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Warrior sophomore Wyatt Ball swipes second base in the opening game win over Holmes. Ball had a walk-off single to help East Central win game two, 3-2. (EC Photo)
