ELLISVILLE – The visiting East Central Warriors held No. 7 Jones to five runs on the day behind two, strong starting pitching performances and finished with double digit hits both games to sweep 9-2 and 8-3 Wednesday evening at Community Bank Park.
The two teams were tied atop the league standings at 14-2 entering the day. With EC's sweep, the Warriors own a two-game lead for first and Jones is in sole possession of second place. The league winner gets a bye into the Region 23 Tournament.
Winners in 18 of its last 21 games, East Central improved to 26-13 and 16-2 in the MACCC. Jones fell to 29-9, 14-4 in conference play.
Jones travels to Northeast for a pair on Saturday. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m.
East Central 9, Jones 2
The Warriors scored in each of the first four innings and the pitching staff threw up eight zeros to run away with a game one win.
A Mo Little RBI-single in the first gave EC the early 1-0 lead. It was 7-0 through four.
Jones' lone two runs came in the sixth.
Peyton Bell drew a leadoff walk and came around to score on a
Tristan Pearson RBI-single and
Marquette Gibson singled and later scored on a passed ball.
Brendon Minor went 5.1 innings for the Warriors, allowing two runs on three hits with three strikeouts. Grant Edwards went the final 3.2 for the save.
Eli Walker drew the start for Jones, allowing four runs on four hits in two innings to take his first loss of the year.
Kace Matthews,
Francisco Elvira and
Blake Summerlin each contributed in relief for the Bobcats.
East Central 8, Jones 3
Eli Collins hit a leadoff home run off
Drew Druckenmiller in game two and it set the tone for a Warrior sweep.
The Bobcats were shutout the first five innings by Luke Cooley while EC built a 5-0 lead.
Jones got on the board in the bottom of the sixth, with
Gatlin Sanders hitting a double to center and then scoring on
Beau Bryans' RBI-single and Pearson adding an RBI-single.
Collins and Little did the damage for the Warriors at the plate, combining to go 6-for-8 with two home runs, five RBIs and six runs scored.
Druckenmiller was touched for five runs on eight hits in 3.1 innings.
