SENATOBIA – A picture-perfect day for baseball at Jim Miles Field was the icing on the cake for Northwest on Friday, as the Rangers won their fifth and sixth-straight contests, defeating Mississippi Delta and Coahoma by a pair of 7-2 and 5-4 finals.
Northwest improved to 10-4 overall in their final meetings before opening MACJC competition. MDCC fell to 6-6, while Coahoma dropped to 11-3.
Northwest will open a difficult MACJC slate on Saturday, March 17, hosting Pearl River at 2/5 p.m.
Game 1 –
Northwest 7, Mississippi Delta 2
A solid five-inning outing from
Reed Logsdon was complimented by three home runs from
Ben Van Cleve,
Dakota Dailey and
Hayden Leatherwood in a 7-2 win against the visiting Trojans.
After Mississippi Delta went three up, three down to open the contest, the Rangers wasted no time jumping ahead, as Dailey smashed a solo shot over the left field wall. Two batters later, Van Cleve would hit one to the same spot, giving Northwest a 2-0 advantage.
Leatherwood gave the Rangers a little insurance in the bottom of the third, delivering a three-run homer to right field, scoring
Brant Blaylock and Van Cleve to extend the margin to 5-0.
Although the Trojans added a run in the fourth and sixth innings, Northwest never buckled and added two more runs off a wild pitch and a sac fly from Dailey, pushing the lead to its final point at 7-2.
Logsdon improved to 2-1 and scattered one run on three hits with three strikeouts and two walks.
Nathan Harrison and Blaylock pitched an inning each in relief, with the latter striking out three batters in the top of the seventh.
Van Cleve led the Rangers at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a home run. Dailey and
Grant McMinn finished 1-for-3 with Dailey adding two RBIs.
Game 2 –
Northwest 5, Coahoma 4
Tied 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh, Blaylock came through in the clutch, scoring
Tanner Leggett off an RBI-single to right field for the winning run in a 5-4 walk-off win.
Coahoma led 2-0 after the top of the second, as the Tigers got runs from a pair of hit batsmen with the bases loaded.
Northwest was held silent until the bottom of the fourth, when the Rangers closed the gap to 2-1 off Leatherwood's two-out single to right field.
Hunter White then got the Ranger bats going in the bottom of the fifth with his double to right-center. After White advanced to third on a balk,
Justin Milam delivered the tying run off an RBI-grounder to third.
A walk to Leggett led to a stolen base from the freshman, followed by Dailey's RBI-double to right center, scoring Leggett for a 3-2 lead.
The lead would be short-lived, however, as Coahoma tied things up in the top of the sixth off Deonteau Rives' RBI-single to right.
Northwest would take the lead yet again in the bottom of the frame before the Tigers tied it up one more time at 4-4 as Hector Torres scored on a passed ball.
Leggett's double down the right field line got the Rangers in business in the bottom of the seventh. After Dailey was intentionally walked, Blaylock then stepped up to the plate and delivered the winning run.
White and Dailey each finished 2-for-3 at the plate, with the latter adding an RBI and a walk. In all, the Rangers finished with 11 hits with everyone in the batting order acquiring at least one hit.
Reed Harding picked up his first win of the season, tossing two strikeouts and surrendering one earned run on three hits in two innings of work.
Kyle Moore also threw a solid 3.2 innings, allowing just one walk and one hit against two strikeouts.
