Lions move to 3-1 in conference play with sweep over Co-Lin

East Mississippi Commu­nity College broke open a pair of close contests with some late-game offense to sweep visiting Copiah-Lin­coln, 11-3 and 4-1, during Sunday’s MACCC baseball action played at EMCC’s Gerald Poole Field.

While improving to 3-1 in conference play, the Lions put together a seven-run seventh inning to earn a run-rule victory in the opener and then com­pleted the home sweep over the Wolves with a three-run fifth inning dur­ing the nightcap.

After Co-Lin grabbed the early lead in the opener with a solo run in the open­ing frame off EMCC start­ing pitcher Kylan Stepter, the Lions used the home run ball to help build a 4-1 advantage through three frames. Following Blayze Berry’s solo shot – his fourth home run of the year – in the bottom of the first and Ethan Medlin’s two-out RBI single an in­ning later, Trey Trosclair’s two-out, two-run homer – his second of the season – extended EMCC’s lead.

The Wolves chipped away at the deficit by plat­ing solo runs in the fourth and seventh innings. Tom Biggs’ homer to lead off the fourth was followed by an unearned run three frames later to close the margin to 4-3 in favor of the home team.

The Lions responded by batting around in the bot­tom half of the seventh of the scheduled nine-inning opener. Aided by a pair of Co-Lin infield errors, three walks and a hit batsman, EMCC sent 12 batters to the plate before scoring its seventh run of the inning on a bases-loaded wild pitch to reach the eight-run margin and close out the run-rule win. Trosclair, Wes­ley Sides and Coby Holmes each had run-scoring sin­gles during the game-de­ciding frame.

Trosclair led the way with a 2-for-4 effort at the plate with three RBIs and two runs scored. Sides and Kade Shannon also added two hits apiece for EMCC.

Stepter threw four in­nings, giving up two runs on three hits with four strikeouts and three walks, to earn the victory for the Lions. Dakota Boney picked up the save by fin­ishing out the final three in­nings allowing just one unearned run.

The seven-inning night­cap featured a pitcher’s duel between EMCC’s Cade Davis and Kade Parker of Co-Lin. Both hurlers pitched into the sixth inning.

The game’s only run scored through the first four frames came on Hunter French’s lead-off homer - his third of the year - in the third inning.

After the Wolves knotted the score at 1-1 on Josh Boone’s two-out RBI single in the fifth, the Lions an­swered with three runs in the bottom half of the in­ning. Consecutive run-scoring singles by Berry and Sides – their second hits of the contest – keyed EMCC’s three-run rally.

Berry struck out three of the five batters he faced to pick up the save for the Lions.