SCOOBA – A solid offensive performance in Game 1 was paired with a strong outing from left-hander
Harrison Sandridge in the nightcap, as Northwest swept East Mississippi by a pair of 11-3 and 3-2 finals on Thursday night.
Northwest extended its win streak to 10 games over EMCC with the sweep to improve to 12-6 on the season and 2-2 in the MACJC. EMCC dropped to 7-11 and 0-4 in conference play.
Because the series was originally scheduled to be played in Senatobia, the Rangers were the designated home team for both contests.
Next up for the Rangers on their 12-game road swing is a date with #2 Jones County in Ellisville at 2/5 p.m. Watch all the action live on jcjc.tv.
Game 1 –
Northwest 11, East Mississippi 3 (7 inn.)
A six-run first inning, highlighted by RBI base hits from
Brooks Boolos and
Justin Milam, helped set the stage for the Rangers' run-rule victory in Game 1.
After
Tanner Leggett's single up the middle,
Dakota Dailey was walked and both runners would eventually come around to score, thanks to a wild pitch from the Lions that was followed by
Ben Van Cleve's RBI-grounder to third.
A few batters later, Boolos would make it a 3-0 Ranger lead with his RBI-single to the shortstop, scoring
Brant Blaylock.
In addition to Milam's RBI-single to first, the Lions surrendered two additional runs off fielding errors at second and third, giving Northwest a 6-0 advantage.
Northwest would add one run apiece over the next four innings, highlighted by a pair of sac flies from Blaylock and White.
EMCC would close the gap slightly in the top of the fourth, as an error on an attempted double play allowed William Garriga to score from second, giving the Lions their first run of the contest, followed by a sac fly from Matt Inlow.
The Lions would again issue a response in the top of the seventh, as a wild pitch allowed Anthony Hickman to score from third, trimming the Ranger lead to 10-3.
Northwest only needed one run in the seventh for the run-rule, however, and Milam delivered with a bases loaded double that scored Blaylock from third for the Rangers' first MACJC victory.
Northwest finished with nine hits in the contest, led by two apiece from Milam and Blaylock.
Reed Logsdon (3-1) tossed 4.2 innings to pick up the win for the Rangers, scattering two unearned runs on four hits with three strikeouts against five walks.
Jake Tyrone and Blaylock made relief appearances, combining for three strikeouts.
East Mississippi was plagued by miscues in the contest, finishing with seven errors, including three in the first inning.
Game 2 –
Northwest 3, East Mississippi 2
In his longest outing since April 11 of last season, Sandridge fanned five EMCC batters and allowed just one earned run over six innings of work in the Rangers' 3-2 nightcap win.
After stranding a pair of runners in the bottom of the second, Northwest got on the scoreboard with two runs in the third inning, thanks to Van Cleve's two-run homer over the left field wall, his fifth of the season.
Jake McPhail would give the Rangers an additional run in the fourth inning, as Brooks would score on the sac fly to center field, pushing the Northwest lead to 3-0.
East Mississippi started to slowly cut into the Rangers' advantage, however, as Garriga's RBI-triple in the fifth and Luke Miller's sac bunt in the sixth allowed the Lions to get within one heading into the seventh.
Gage Nyman got the winning run at the plate with his single to second base, but a grounder and a pair of fly outs denied the comeback attempt for the Lions and sealed the sweep for Northwest.
Northwest was limited to three hits in the contest, with Dailey and
Hayden Leatherwood contributing one apiece.
Blaylock came on in the seventh to pick up his first career save.
