SENATOBIA – The Northwest Mississippi Community College baseball team (14-9, 1-1) picked up a thrilling come from behind 12-11 win in their first game of their conference double header with #1 East Central Community College (25-5, 2-2) before falling in game two 14-10 on Saturday afternoon at Jim Miles Field.
Game one was another example of the Ranger's ability to rally back, falling behind 9-4 before earning the win. Game two saw a near comeback bid fall short as well, with an early 9-2 hold proving too much to overcome.
"They are really good," Head Coach Mark Carson said applauding the effort of his team and their scrappy play. "It was a big win, but our guys have done that all year. They've come back and found a way, (ECCC) gave us some opportunities and we took advantage of that and there was a heroic effort by Preston Johnson to come in and throw up zeros like he did and gave us a chance to get into the game."
GAME 1 – NWCC 12 East Central 11
The first inning gave warning of what kind of offensive showing was coming as after ECCC picked up the opening run, Northwest answered with three in the bottom half of the inning after loading the bases and getting an RBI from Caleb Doty before Barrett McKenney singled to score a pair and give NWCC a 3-1 lead.
The Warriors tied the game with two more runs in the top of the second with some mistakes on the Rangers proving costly, and more problems reared their heads in the top of the third when ECCC added three more to extend their lead to 6-3.
A Doty home run in the bottom of the third, his fourth home run in as many games, would get one back for NWCC to make it 6-4.
More offense was worked home with small ball from the Warriors extending the lead to 9-4 and chasing Tyce Powers from the game for Preston Johnson, who would close out the inning by getting the final two outs.
Johnson set to work and would finish the game with 4.2 innings for Northwest, only giving up two runs, of which only one was earned and he gave the Rangers the chance to rally back.
"We were down a lot, and my mindset was just to come in and throw strikes and give the team a shot. Johnson said, saying he felt good about his pitches from start to finish. "I kept coming back and telling (coach) I felt great and was landing everything and controlling my pitches."
Down 10-4 in the bottom of the sixth, Northwest opened with a two-run home run by McKenney that set the tone for a five-run inning that would follow. After loading the bases with two outs, Mason McMillin, who finished the game with three hits, promptly unloaded them with a double to cash in and close the game to 10-9.
Johnson said with this team, there always will be a chance of those innings as the team has embraced the never-say-die attitude.
"We just aren't going to give up. We have the grit and we have the guys that aren't going to give up. I knew when we had the inning with the Barrett home run, after I shut them down next inning I knew we had a chance."
An unearned run from the Warriors in the top of the eighth made it 11-9 going into the bottom half where the Rangers turned to small ball to bring home Josh Pena and Mason Gillentine on a two-run sacrifice fly to right field, but they left the go ahead run at third.
South McCoy came in and worked a 1-2-3 top of the ninth inning, and the Rangers offense would load the bases with one out in the bottom half. A passed ball with two outs gave the Rangers the walk off win, handing East Central just their fifth loss of the season, and picking up their fifth ranked win of the season.
The victory went to McCoy, improving him to 2-0 on the year in seven appearances. Johnson was the
GAME 2 – NWCC 10 East Central 14
After Eli Deberry worked a 1-2-3 top of first inning, the Northwest offense worked around Gillentine for the opening run of the game to take a 1-0 edge.
That was short lived when the Warriors took advantage of some fortuitus bounces and hits that would load the bases early, and result in a six-run inning in the top of the second that would put the Rangers into a big hole once again.
Northwest loaded the bases in the next frame but would only get one run on a sacrifice fly by Gillentine to score McCoy and make it 6-2 going to the third.
More traffic from the Warriors in the top of the third would chase away Deberry and Tyler Sullivan would come in, closing out the inning but not before ECCC extended the lead to 8-2. They added one more with an RBI double in the top of the fourth to go up by a game high seven runs.
As has been the trend this year for NWCC, the question isn't if, but when the big inning will come, and in this case, it was the bottom of the fifth. Northwest would run through four different Warrior pitchers, getting four walks, two hit batters, and one error that would end with five runs across the plate and a new game at 9-7 going to the final two innings.
East Central picked up three of those runs back in the top of the sixth and two more in the seventh which would essentially put the game out of reach, but Northwest had a few more shots to fire on the way out.
McMillin would power out a two-run home run in the bottom half with one out and would be followed by a McCoy home run one out later to make it a 14-10 final score.
Carson said it was a bittersweet ending to the day of baseball.
"It's frustrating because you beat them in game one, you had a chance to come out in game two and really stick it to them and you didn't do it. You didn't get a good pitching performance; you didn't make defensive plays. They gave you opportunity after opportunity, and you only get five hits; you just aren't going to beat a good team like that.
"Yeah, you beat the number one team in the country, but you had a chance to do something really special and sweep them. At one point it's a 9-7 ballgame and their bullpen is on the ropes, and we didn't take advantage of it and get it done.
The loss would go to Deberry as he dropped to 0-2 on the season.
Up Next:
The Rangers will be on the road on Tuesday when they travel Fulton for a double header with the Itawamba Community College Indians (14-9, 3-1) with first pitch of game one scheduled for 2 P.M. as a nine-inning game with a seven-inning game to follow.
Streaming information can be found at nwccrangers.com or you can follow along with game updates and more on Northwest social media accounts.
