April 22, 2018
The No. 20 ranked East Central Community College Warriors finished up an undefeated week in MACJC league play with a road sweep over the Itawamba Community College Indians Saturday, April 21, at Roy Cresap Field on the ICC campus in Fulton.
East Central grabbed the lead in the sixth inning and held on for a 6-5 nine-inning win in game one. The Warriors scored all their runs in three innings and pounded out 16 hits in an 11-4 win in the seven-inning game two. The Warriors also swept Copiah-Lincoln on Wednesday.
East Central is now 27-11 overall on the season and 16-6 in the league. The Itawamba Indians are 25-11 overall and 11-9 in the league. East Central is still locked in a three-way tie for third place in the league and a quest to host a first-round playoff series in May.
In game one, the Warriors broke a 4-4 tie with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth thanks to a two-run double from freshman Alex Hay of Lewisburg. After Itawamba closed the gap to 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth on a solo home run, East Central pitchers Tanner Elders of Newton County and Dylan Marsh of Lake Cormorant kept the Indians scoreless the final three innings. Elders got the win and Marsh the save.
Freshman Deon Leflore of Leake Central had three singles for East Central, and Davis Lott of Lewisburg had two hits. Wyatt Ball of Nanih Waiya hit his third home run of the week in game one, a two-run shot in the first inning.
Five East Central pitchers combined to hold Itawamba to just four hits in game two. Payton Griffin out of Mount Hebron School in Pheba got the win in relief, throwing two innings of no-hit ball.
Trailing 2-0, the Warriors scored three in the fourth, three in the fifth, and five in the sixth to pull away from the Indians. Freshman George Farid (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), Ryan Cupit of West Monroe, La., and Zack Hutchison of Ellisville all had three hits for East Central. Hutchison drove in four runs with a single in the fifth and a double in the sixth. Freshman Will Ross of Hernando hit a solo home run to lead off the top of the fourth.
The Warriors will host Meridian Community College, one of the teams tied for third place, on Tuesday, April 24, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. The Warriors then welcome Elaine P. Nunez Community College (Chalmette, La.) to the Clark-Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur on Saturday, April 28, for games at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Most home baseball games can be heard on WKOZ Cruisin 98.3 or via audio stream and live stream video at www.eccc.edu/eccc-media.
