The No. 17 East Central Community College Warriors split a doubleheader with Mississippi Delta Community College on Saturday, March 31, dropping game one 6-5 before coming back to take the nightcap 9-3.
The Mississippi Delta home games were played at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson due to wet field conditions in Moorhead.
With the split, East Central is 19-7 overall on the season and 8-2 in MACJC play, which puts the Warriors alone in second place in the league. The Mississippi Delta Trojans are 10-15 overall and 2-6 in the league.
East Central gave up five runs in the bottom of the first inning of game one and could never catch up with the Trojans. Mississippi Delta took advantage of four walks by Warrior pitchers and an infield error to turn two hits into five runs and an early 5-2 lead. East Central scored two in the top of the first on a two-run single from Wyatt Ball of Nanih Wayia.
East Central chipped away at the lead in the top of the fourth with an RBI single by freshman Deon Leflore of Leake Central to make the score 5-3. The Trojans added what would be the winning run in bottom of the frame to increase the lead to 6-3. Ball's two-run homer in the top of the seventh would pull the Warriors to within one at 6-5, but East Central failed to get a runner on base in the final two innings.
Ball had four of East Central's 12 hits in game one. Five Warrior pitchers held Mississippi Delta to just six hits.
East Central broke up another close game in the nightcap with seven runs in the last two innings for the 9-3 win. Trailing 3-2 heading to the top of the sixth, the Warriors took a 5-3 lead thanks to runs on a Leflore sacrifice fly, a double by freshman George Farid (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), and a Trojan error. East Central added four more runs in the seventh on a fielder's choice, bases loaded walk, passed ball, and Farid sacrifice fly.
Farid stole home in the top of the third for East Central's second run of the game.
Freshman right-hander Will Ross of Hernando got the win in relief, throwing the final three and a third innings and allowing no hits and no runs. Freshman Austin Pearce of Hazel Green, Ala., started and gave up just three hits and three runs in three and two-thirds innings.
The Warriors will host No. 18 Pearl River Community College on Wednesday, April 4, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Clark-Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur. East Central will travel to Scooba on Saturday, April 7, to face East Mississippi Community College at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Most home baseball games can be heard on WKOZ Cruisin 98.3 or via audio stream and live stream video at www.eccc.edu/eccc-media.