By By Austin Bishop/Special to The Star.
Feb. 25, 2001
Although it is just February, the Meridian Community College and Jones County Junior College baseball teams will get a little bit of an idea of what it's like to play in a championship game atmosphere when the two teams square off today at 3 p.m.
MCC rolled past East Mississippi Community College 24-5 on Saturday and JCJC used six homers to down East Central 14-8 in the second day of the Rush Classic being played at Scaggs Field on the campus of MCC.
That means that when Jones and MCC play today in the final day of the round-robin tournament, the winner will be able to claim the championship.
The Eagles exploded for nine runs in the second and then picked up eight more in the fourth on the way to the victory.
Rory Thornton, Justin McMullan and Chris Knight all hit homers for the Eagles in the game, who finished the night with 18 hits. Eleven different Eagles picked up at least one hit in the game, with Tyler Scarbrough leading the way with three singles.
It only took Meridian two batters into the bottom of the first inning to take the lead for good. After a fly out to start the game, Rory Thornton ripped a homer to put the Eagles up 1-0. MCC added another run in the inning on an RBI single by Temetric Thomas before the Eagles hit for nine runs in the second to go up 11-0.
The big blows in the inning were a two-run single by Scarbrough, a three-run homer by McMullan and a solo shot to center field by Knight.
After Meridian added two more runs without the benefit of a hit in the third, EMCC scored a run in the top of the fourth to cut it to 13-1. But the Eagles, now 7-4 on the year, hit for eight more in the bottom of the inning to go up 21-1. Josh Raggio had a three-run double in that inning for Meridian.
The Lions, now 1-5, scored four runs in the top of the sixth, with two of those coming off a homer by Josh Buckley.
Brian Reed (1-0) picked up the win on the mound for the Eagles, giving up just one run and two hits in five innings, while striking out six.
While he was happy to get the win after getting no decisions in his two previous starts, despite strong outings, Reed said what he was real happy to see was his teammates hitting the ball at the plate.
JONES 14, ECCC 8: Six different Bobcats hit homers for Jones, which evened its record at 4-4 on the season with the win.
Clint Harris led off in the bottom of the first with a homer for JCJC, while former Quitman High School standout Kyle Valentine belted a grand slam to put the winners up 5-2 after one inning of play.
Craig Bush, Brett McAlphin, Josh Sullivan, Chris Butler all homered for Jones in the game. Mario Laphand, who prepped for Quitman, had a two-run double for the winners.
Jones jumped out to an 11-3 lead before the Warriors began chipping away.
ECCC fell to 1-6 on the year with the loss.
Today's action begins at Noon at Scaggs Field with East Central and East Mississippi squaring off.