EMCC’s Gault tabbed MACCC Player of the Week

For his power surge during East Mississippi Community Col­lege’s playoff series win over East Central, Carson Gault has been named the MACCC Base­ball Player of the Week. Voted on by the sports information di­rectors of the Mississippi Associ­ation of Community Colleges Conference, the announcement was made Tuesday by the MACCC office.

In the two games he played during last week’s NJCAA Re­gion 23 best-of-three playoff se­ries held in Scooba, Gault was 4-for-6 with three home runs, five runs batted in and five runs scored. His three homers came during his first three plate ap­pearances against the Warriors after having entered the series with only eight total at-bats on the season.

Gault’s first two home runs both came during the seventh inning of the Lions’ 9-8 series-opening Thursday win when he ignited EMCC's comeback from a 5-1 deficit with a pinch-hit solo homer to open the frame and then capped the eight-run inning with a three-run blast. The re­serve catcher out of New Albany came back the next day while making his first career EMCC start and promptly homered in his first at-bat for his third straight home run. Gault also had a single and was hit by a pitch with three runs scored dur­ing Friday’s contest.

As the No. 2 seed in next week’s (May 16-20) NJCAA Re­gion 23 Baseball Tournament to be held in Poplarville, head coach Brett Kimbrel’s 27-17 EMCC Lions will take on fifth-seeded Jones College during Monday’s 7 p.m. contest at Dub Herring Park on the Pearl River Community College campus. Monday’s opening-day tourna­ment action will begin with a noon contest between third-seeded LSU Eunice and No. 4 seed Hinds, followed at 3:30 p.m. by nationally top-ranked and tourney host Pearl River against sixth-seeded Northwest Mississippi. All games during the week-long, PRCC-hosted tour­nament will be livestreamed at PRCCMedia.com/Gold. Tickets can be purchased online at PRC­CAthletics.com/Tickets.

In making their first regional baseball tournament appear­ance since 2015, the Lions fin­ished the 2022 regular season in third place within the MACCC standings with a 20-8 conference mark. Currently receiving votes in this week’s NJCAA Division II baseball poll, EMCC will enter the upcoming Region 23 tourna­ment tied for 10th nationally with 60 home runs as a team.