SCOOBA – No. 2 Jones College and East Mississippi needed nearly eight hours to complete their baseball doubleheader on Saturday at Gerald Poole Field.
Jones outlasted EMCC, 20-19, in a four-hour, 26-minute game one and squandered a 5-1 lead in the sixth to get walked-off, 6-5, in eight innings in a lengthy nightcap.
The Bobcats head to Meridian on Tuesday, April 14 for a 3 o'clock doubleheader.
Jones 20, East Miss 19
No lead was safe in the opener.
East Mississippi came out swinging, grabbing a 6–1 lead in the second behind a three-run homer from Ty Wiggins and a two-RBI knock from Jonas Coleman.
But Jones answered immediately with a four-run third inning, highlighted by a three-run blast from
Warren Hutchinson to cut it to 6–5.
From there, the game turned into a back-and-forth slugfest.
EMCC stretched the lead to 11–6 after four innings but Jones erupted for five runs in the sixth to take a 14–12 lead.
Jones appeared to seize control for good with a five-run seventh, pushing the score to 19–14, but East Mississippi refused to fold and scored four runs in the bottom half—all unearned—to claw back within 19-18.
Braxton Whiteside delivered a game-tying RBI-single to make it 19–19 after eight.
Dylan Champagne lined an RBI-single to right in the top of the ninth to score the go-ahead run and
Trevor Hodges retired all three Lions in the bottom half.
Sanders Ainsworth was 6-for-7 with three doubles and three RBIs and
Gage Reeves had four hits and scored four runs.
The Bobcats needed seven pitchers. They handed out 13 walks and six hit-by-pitches but Hodges (7-1) was able to throw two scoreless to get the win.
East Miss 6, Jones 5 (8 inn.)
After the offensive explosion in game one, the nightcap looked like it might be all Jones early.
The Bobcats jumped out to a 5–0 lead after four and a half, capitalizing on a mix of timely hitting and wild pitches, including a solo homer from Champagne and a two-run sequence in the fifth fueled by miscues.
But East Mississippi slowly chipped away.
An RBI-single from Hunter Russell got EMCC on the board in the fifth.
With
Drew Lambert cruising along on the mound for Jones, a four-run EMCC sixth inning tied the game at 5–5.
Lambert walked two, hit two and balked to get it to 5-3 but got a pop up that should've ended the inning and ultimately the game in regulation. But miscommunication between center field and second base saw Russell's pop up hit the turf and plate the tying runs.
Jones loaded the bases in the top of the seventh with one out but struck out and popped out to leave the go-ahead runs on.
EMCC then completed the comeback in the eighth, loading the bases on a hit-by-pitch, single and walk, and getting a walk-off single from Miles Mitchell.
In all, Bobcat pitching issued 30 free passes on the day, including 20 walks and 10 hit-by-pitches.
