March 7, 2019

The East Central Community College baseball team traveled to Booneville Wednesday, March 6, and split a couple of non-league games against Northeast Mississippi Community College at Harold T. White Field at Booneville City Park.

East Central erased a five-run deficit in the first game of the day on its way to a 14-9 win. The Warriors lost a heartbreaker to Northeast in the seven-inning game two, giving up just one hit, a two-out, walk-off home run in a 3-2 loss to the Tigers.

East Central is now 4-6 on the season. Northeast is 7-5. The games did not count in the regular season MACJC standings, as the Warriors and Tigers will meet in league games April 6 in Decatur.

After falling behind 5-0 after one inning of play, the Warriors outscored Northeast 14-4 the remainder of the way for the 14-9 game one win.

East Central put runs across the plate in every inning but the first and fourth, including four in the top of the second and three each in the fifth and ninth innings.

In the four-run second, freshman catcher Eli Harrison (Newton County) singled in a run and sophomore left fielder Ryan Cupit (West Monroe, La.) singled in two runs. In the three-run fifth, redshirt freshman center fielder Dakota Kennedy of Choctaw Central doubled in sophomore designated hitter Alex Hay of Lewisburg, who had doubled, and sophomore shortstop Jay Johnston out of Lake brought in a run with a sacrifice fly. In the top of the ninth, sophomore third baseman George Farid (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) doubled in two of the three runs.

Sophomore right fielder Ken Scott of Clarkdale doubled in a run in the sixth, while Kennedy also had an RBI single in the third and an RBI double in the fifth.

Scott collected three hits to lead the Warriors, including a pair of doubles. Kennedy had three RBI. East Central had 12 hits, including six doubles.

Five East Central pitchers allowed just eight hits in the game, but gave up 11 walks. The two teams combined to commit eight errors.

Sophomore right-hander Thomas Boothe (Fairhope, Ala., Bayside Academy) threw five innings of no-hit baseball in game two, before walking the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth and departing with a 2-0 lead. Northeast would go on to tie the game 2-2 on a Warrior error and a bases-loaded walk.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers’ Tyler Samaniego hit a line drive over the center field fence to give Northeast the 3-2 win.

Four East Central pitchers gave up just one earned run and struck out nine Northeast batters, but walked nine in the game.

East Central’s runs in game two came on an RBI single from freshman first baseman Cameron Cotten (George County) in the top of the second and a Northeast error in the top of the sixth. Scott had a pair of singles to lead the Warriors in game two.

East Central travels to Scooba to play East Mississippi in two non-league games starting at 2 p.m. on Friday, March 8.

The Warriors will be at home again on Tuesday, March 12, when Coastal Alabama-South visits Clark-Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur for a doubleheader. First pitch is 3 p.m.

MACJC league play begins Saturday, March 16, when the Warriors face Holmes in a doubleheader in Goodman beginning at 1 p.m.

East Central home baseball games can be heard on WKOZ “Cruisin” 98.3 or watched via live stream video at www.eccc.edu/eccc-media.