SCOOBA – Six Bobcat pitchers combined to strikeout 29 East Mississippi batters and Preston Ratliff had a two home run, eight-RBI day as Jones swept a pair in Scooba 9-4 and 8-1 on Sunday afternoon.

Winners in six of its last eight, Jones improved to 22-16 overall, 15-9 in league play. The Bobcats sit in a three-way tie for fourth with four games remaining and still have a shot to host a best-of-three playoff series. 

Jones will travel to No. 3 Pearl River on Tuesday and to Holmes next Saturday to close out the regular season. 

Game 1 – Jones 9, EMCC 4

Ratliff's three-run home run in the third set the tone for a big day at the plate and Kameron Partridge tossed six strong innings to lift Jones to a win in the opener.

An RBI-double from Tyler Ducksworth and RBI-single from Chase Honeycutt gave Jones a 7-1 lead after five.

Partridge (5-2) allowed just four hits through his six innings of work, allowing an earned run while striking out seven against no walks.

A pair of solo home runs in the seventh off Colby Tubre gave EMCC new life. With the bases loaded and Jones leading 8-4, Garrett Langrell entered and got a strikeout looking to end the threat.

Langrell would toss the final 2.1 frames, punching out seven, to earn his team-leading fifth save of the year.

Bobcat pitchers cominbed for 17 strikeouts in the opening game against two walks.

All nine Bobcats in the lineup had a hit, with Ratliff going 3-for-5 with five RBIs. Jesse Johnson, Ducksworth and Brady Spring had two hits apiece.

Game 2 – Jones 8, EMCC 1

Wyatt Blalock worked six innings, allowing one earned run with nine strikeouts, and four Bobcats finished with multiple hits to close out a doubleheader sweep.

Ratliff's RBI-single in the first, followed by a pair of Lion errors, gave Jones a 3-0 lead after one.

That was more than enough for Blalock (5-2), who allowed just four hits.

Ratliff homered for the second time of the day in the fifth and Hunter French added a two-run triple to right to put the game out of reach.