No. 5 Baseball Warriors and ICC Indians Trade Wins

March 26, 2022

 

The No. 5 East Central Community College Warriors took down the Itawamba Indians in a MACCC matchup with a seven-inning, run-rule win before dropping the second game of a doubleheader, 3-2, on Saturday afternoon, March 26. The split moved the Warriors to 18-7 overall and to 5-5 in conference play, while the Indians moved to 11-11, 5-5.

 

J.T. Vance and Leighton Jenkins led the Warriors at the plate on the day with three hits each, while Cook had four RBIs through the two games. 

 

ECCC's Trey Lewis had his 19-game hitting streak snapped in the opener, but the sophomore reached base in both games on walks to grow his reached-base streak to 21 games. Clayton Cook pushed his hitting streak to 16 games after getting a hit in the opener but had the streak broken in the nightcap. Austin Green reached base in both games as well to move to 12 straight games reaching base safely, while Vance is up to eight games in a row.

Game One | W, 9-1 (7 innings)

Big second and seventh innings, paired with a strong outing on the bump from Brendon Minor, pushed the Warriors to a 9-1 run-rule win over ICC in game one.

A pair of walks led off the top of the first for ECCC and Ramie Harrison was able to score one with a line drive to center for the first run of the day.

After a three-up, three-down bottom half of the first, the Warriors broke the game open in the second. Runs came on an RBI single from Clayton Cook that scored two, and a bases-loaded drawn walk from Eli Collins to make it 4-0 going into the third. 

ICC got one back in the bottom of the third on an RBI double, but Collins drove in another in the fourth to push the lead back to four, 5-1. 

A sac fly from Leighton Jenkins in the fifth, a pair of RBI doubles from J.T. Vance and Jenkins, and an RBI single from Cook in the seventh grew the ECCC advantage to 9-1 to secure the run-rule win. 

Minor was solid from the mound throughout the game as he gave up just four hits, one run - earned – walked three, and fanned five Indians in the win. 

At the plate, Cook, Vance, and Jenkins all finished with two hits each, while Cook's three RBIs were a team-best.

Game Two | L, 3-2

Game two was scoreless until plated Jenkins on an RBI groundout. The ECCC lead was brief as three straight singles in the home half of the frame tied the game at 1-1. A passed ball and wild pitch later in the third grew the ICC lead to 3-1. 

A pair of singles from Vance and Austin Green led off the top of the fifth for the Warriors. Jenkins moved the runners on a sacrifice bunt, and Cook drove in one with an RBI groundout to short, cutting the Indian lead to just one, 3-2. Unfortunately, that was all the scoring in the nightcap as the game ended with the low, 3-2, scoring holding. 

Green was the only Warrior in the contest to post multiple hits as ECCC was outhit, eight to six. Lewis and Cook drove in ECCC's pair of runs in the game. 

Grant Edwards got the nod on the mound and picked up the loss as he went three innings, gave up seven hits, three runs – two earned – walked one, and struck out four. Luke Odom and Ervin Simmons threw in relief with Odom fanning two batters in two and one-third innings of work.

Up Next

The Warriors return Decatur on Tuesday, March 29, as the Jones College Bobcats make their way into the Clark/Gay Baseball Complex. Games are slated for 3 and 6 p.m. and they can be seen live at www.eccclive.com/gold.