ELLISVILLE – Jones and No. 18 Itawamba split the final doubleheader of the baseball regular season on Friday evening at The Bank.

Itawamba rallied from a 7-2 deficit with seven runs in the seventh to win the opener 11-7 before Jones got a strong six inning start from Brice Deaton to win the nightcap 6-4. 

Jones will be the No. 6 seed in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament and will travel to No. 5 Northeast for a best-of-3 opening round series Thursday through Saturday, May 4-6. 

The four winners of the opening round series will join MACCC champion East Central and region host LSU Eunice in Eunice, Louisiana, May 15-19 with the winner advancing to the World Series.

Itawamba 11, Jones 7

A leadoff home run from Bo Rock in the seventh was part of a seven-run outburst for the Indians as they rallied from five runs down to take the opener 11-7. 

Jones led 2-0 after one and 6-2 after two but couldn't finish.

Peyton Bell drew a bases-loaded walk and Hays Carley reached on a fielder's choice to plate the Bobcats' first two runs. 

Marquette Gibson's leadoff double to left-center helped start a four-run second. Jakob Wax, Josh Cary and Tristan Pearson followed with RBIs to make it 6-2 Jones.

Itawamba's rally in the seventh started with Rock's solo shot. The first six Indians all reached and it was quickly a 7-7 game when Matthew Martinalich singled. Rock capped the inning with an RBI-single to make it 10-7.

Jones had just one hit over the final five innings.

Eli Atkins was chased after one inning for ICC, but Matt Bourdon threw a gutsy 7.0 innings in relief to get the win. 

The Bobcats used six arms and allowed 11 runs on 18 hits.

Cary, Beau Bryans and Gatlin Sanders had multiple hits.

Jones 6, Itawamba 4

Deaton scattered five hits, five strikeouts and one earned run over six innings and the bottom of the JC lineup provided timely hits to help Jones win the nightcap 6-4.

After trading runs in the third and fourth, the Bobcats took their first lead in the fifth on Wax's RBI-single. Honeycutt followed with an RBI-single to make it 5-3 and a wild pitch extended the lead to 6-3 after six.

Ty Roberson hit his second home run of the game from the No. 9 hole to pull ICC with two in the top of the seventh before Luke Lycette got a groundout, pop up and strikeout for his team-high sixth save.

Four of Jones' seven hits came from the No.'s 6-9 spots.