SENATOBIA – In Saturday's MACJC baseball opener against 19th-ranked Pearl River, Northwest squandered a nine-run lead in Game 1 and a four-run lead in Game 2 to drop a pair of 13-10 and 6-5 decisions at Jim Miles Field.

Northwest fell to 10-6 on the season and 0-2 in the MACJC with the losses, while the Wildcats improved to 15-3 and 2-0 in the conference.

Up next for the Rangers is a doubleheader against East Mississippi (7-9, 0-2 MACJC) on Wednesday, March 21 at 3/6 p.m. This will be the final home doubleheader for Northwest for three weeks, as the Rangers will hit the road for five consecutive conference twinbills.

Game 1 – #19 Pearl River 13, Northwest 10

Leading 10-1 after three complete, the Rangers surrendered two in the fourth ahead of a nine-inning burst from PRCC that turned the tide in a 13-10 victory for the Wildcats with 12 unanswered runs.

Northwest started things off right in the first inning, as Kyle Moore sent the Wildcats down swinging. After a wild pitch scored Tanner Leggett from third, Hayden Leatherwood teed off on a two-run homer to right center, putting the Rangers ahead 3-0.

Wiley Cleland got a run back for Pearl River in the top of the second with an RBI-grounder to third, but the Rangers would benefit from a seven-run third inning, highlighted by a pair of RBI-doubles from Ben Van Cleve and Tanner Booth and a rare inside-the-park home run from Dakota Dailey that pushed the Northwest lead to 10-1.

That lead would be short-lived, however, as Pearl River fought back to get two runs across in the fourth and then delivered the biggest blow of all with nine runs in the top of the fifth inning, sparked by a grand slam from Bryson Medious and followed by three runs off an error, as PRCC took the lead at 12-10.

Pearl River's pitching also became a problem for the Northwest bats, as the Rangers were held without a hit for four of the last five innings. The lone exception came in the bottom of the eighth off a pair of singles from Dailey and Justin Milam, but neither would produce any runs.

PRCC added one last run in the top of the sixth off Matt Taylor's RBI-single, but the scoring would stop there as Nathan Harrison dished seven strikeouts over the final 4.2 innings.

Both teams finished with eight hits apiece, led by a 2-for-4 performance from Dailey. Taylor, Noah Barron and Scooter Ginn had two hits apiece to lead the Wildcats.

Kyle Moore pitched 4.1 innings and delivered six strikeouts against five hits, three earned runs and a walk in a no-decision. Reed Harding (1-2) took the loss for Northwest, giving up three walks, two earned runs and a hit without recording an out.

Game 2 – #19 Pearl River 6, Northwest 5

Despite holding a 4-0 lead through three complete, Pearl River responded with a six-run top of the fourth inning, setting up a 6-5 win for the Wildcats.

PRCC scored all six of its runs and delivered four of its five hits in that one inning, all with two outs.

Brooks Boolos got the Rangers on the board in the bottom of the second with an RBI-single up the middle, scoring Will Brooks for a 1-0 Northwest lead.

Northwest followed that up with a three-run third inning, highlighted by Leatherwood's RBI-double down the left field line. Van Cleve then reached on an error at third to score Dailey and Brant Blaylock's RBI-groundout to first scored Leatherwood, pushing the Rangers' advantage to 4-0.

Pearl River once again came up big in the fourth, however, as a bases loaded walk to Luke Harper was followed by a pair of two-run RBIs from Magruder O'Bannon and Scooter Ginn. Medious would then deliver another Wildcat run with an RBI-single through the left side, turning it into a 6-4 lead for PRCC.

Northwest made every attempt to rally in the bottom of the fifth, but were only able to get one across off Leatherwood's RBI-triple to left center.

The Rangers had one final chance in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of runners on base and one out, but PRCC's bullpen did its job, however, striking out Leatherwood and popping up Van Cleve, denying a comeback for Northwest.

Ian Hawkins started off solid for the Rangers, tying a career-high of nine strikeouts before surrendering five earned runs and four walks in his first loss of the season.

Both teams finished with five hits in the nightcap with Leatherwood leading the way for the Rangers at 2-for-4, a double, a triple and two RBIs.

Despite losing both games, the Northwest pitching staff combined for an impressive 26 strikeouts on the afternoon.