FULTON –
Brady Thomas hit a pair of home runs and drove in six to lead No. 13 Jones to a run-rule win in the opener and
Gatlin Sanders' RBI-single in extra innings capped a sweep at Itawamba Saturday at Roy Cresap Field.
The Bobcats close out the regular season 37-13 overall, 19-9 in MACCC play to clinch the No. 4 seed in next weekend's NJCAA Region 23 Best-of-3 playoff series.
Jones will host East Mississippi May 3-5 at The Bank. Game times are set for 6 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and, if necessary, 2 p.m. Sunday.
The winner advances to the six-team Region 23 Tournament May 13-17 at Pearl River.
Jones 14, Itawamba 2 (7 inn.)
Thomas' grand slam in the third broke open a 3-1 game and he'd end the scoring in the sixth on his two-run shot to center.
Ben Davis' RBI-groundout gave ICC a 1-0 lead after one, but Jones would tie the game its next at-bat on a wild pitch.
Colton Hegwood singled home Sanders as part of a six-run third,
Braden Smith added an RBI-single and Thomas' grand slam made it 7-1.
Hays Carley's sac fly pushed the lead to 9-2 in the fourth and
Austin Mills' sac fly made it 12-2 in the sixth before Thomas' two-run homer.
Beau Bryans (6-1) worked five innings, scattering two hits, two runs, seven strikeouts and four walks to get the win.
Connor Brooks tossed two shutout innings with four strikeouts.
ICC used five pitchers in the loss. Bryce Glenn lasted 2.2 and took the loss.
Jones 3, Itawamba 2
A leadoff single for Thomas in the eighth and
Wade Fulton sac bunt put Thomas in position to score the game-winning run on Sanders' RBI-single to right.
Smith's two-run homer in the second, his first of the season, gave Jones a 2-0 lead that held up into the sixth.
ICC cut the lead in half on an error and then plated the tying run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth to eventually force extras.
Jones had the go-ahead run in scoring position in the seventh but couldn't score it.
After Sanders' go-ahead single in the eighth, Thomas came in and slammed the door shut for his team-high seventh save with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout.
Thomas was 4-for-4 with two doubles and two singles and Sanders, Hegwood and
Josh King added two hits each.
Micah Daniell (4-2) gutted out a career-high 7.0 innings and allowed two hits, no earned runs and struck out five for the win.
