SENATOBIA – It was a celebratory mood on Wednesday at Jim Miles Field as the #24 Northwest Mississippi Community College baseball team (30-15, 17-7) picked up a pair of wins over Mississippi Delta Community College (4-34, 0-24), earning the 600th and 601st wins of Head Coach Mark Carson's career in the process.
The opening game was a rout as the Rangers rolled to an 18-6 win, scoring 17 runs in the final three innings of the run-rule shortened game before holding off a pair of late-inning rallies by the Trojans in game two for a 5-2 win that kept them in the hunt for the second host site in the Region 23 playoffs.
"It was big to sweep at home and keep climbing," Carson said. "You always think 30 is the magic number to get to for your team and your program, and that's big, so I'm proud for that, and I'm proud of our kids. We moved into second in the conference standings today, so that's a big thing, and we are still trying to host that regional tournament here."
GAME 1 - #24 NWCC 18 Mississippi Delta 6
It was a pitchers' duel at the start of the opening game as Derran Randle went head-to-head with Carson Allen, and after three innings, Northwest found themselves in a 2-1 hole with their only run coming on a solo home run by Mason McMillin to lead off the second inning.
The Trojans had answered right back with a two-out rally in the top of the third and used a pair of hit batters and a pair of singles to plate two runs. They added one more in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly as the idea of being upset became a real possibility, but the Northwest offense snuffed that out in the bottom of the inning when their bats came to life.
It all started with a pair of singles from McMillin and Barrett McKenney, with McKenney's bringing home McMillin after he had stolen second base. After a fly out to center field, the next two Rangers would walk to load the bases, and Lake Reed brought in the tying run with a single of his own.
After a pitching change, a full-count walk to Mason Gillentine gave the lead to Northwest at 4-3 with John Whit Snopek scoring, and two more runs scored when Preston Johnson singled to score Corey Watkins and Reed.
The Trojans got a run back in the top of the fifth inning, but the Rangers kept up their attack in the bottom half, sending another nine batters to the plate after the first five in the inning would reach on base hits, getting RBIs from South McCoy, Watkins, and the big blow coming on a two-out RBI single from Johnson to push the lead to 10-4.
Tyler Sullivan, who had closed out the fifth inning for the Rangers, gave up a two-run homerun in the top of the sixth inning but with the Rangers deep into the Trojans bullpen, they once again responded in the bottom of the sixth with their biggest inning of the game, taking advantage of five walks and five hits, including a leadoff homerun by McKenney to plate eight runs and put the game out of reach at 18-6.
"We really worked hard these last couple of days trying to match what we were going to see with their pitching, and I think it paid off," Carson said. "You saw some guys get some big hits, and we were able to get some young guys some at-bats. It was a good time to get the offense rolling in game one."
Northwest picked up RBI singles from Joe Aikens, who picked up his first collegiate hit after replacing Reed behind home plate, and a pair of two-run singles from Johnson and McCoy.
Gideon Deaton was called on out of the bullpen to close the game and worked a 1-2-3 top of the seventh to secure the win for Sullivan and the 600th win in the career of Carson.
Johnson was massive in the game, going 3-3 in his final three at-bats and accounting for six RBI's and a run scored.
"I was just trying to get my bat out front. I knew what they were throwing, they kept trying to go to the off-speed on me, and I just sat back on it and tried to catch the barrel, and with teammates in scoring position, I was just trying to get them in," Johnson said.
"He's just a baseball player. He shows up every day, and he's always going to be there for you, and he's always going to play hard," Carson said of Johnson. "He's just grinds, and that's the best thing you can be, and he's a guy when you look up baseball player in the dictionary, there's going to be a picture of him there because he just does it right."
McMillin finished the game going 3-5 as well, with three runs scored, and McKenney was just a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-4 with a walk and four runs scored with two RBIs.
GAME 2 - #24 NWCC 5 Mississippi Delta 2
Northwest kept up the offensive success in the opening stages of the second game of the doubleheader, surging out to a 5-0 lead in the first three innings.
"It was huge because it makes our starter a whole lot more comfortable on the mound so he can just get out there and throw strikes and let the defense work," Johnson said.
The offense picked up a pair of runs in the first on an RBI infield single from McMillin that saw a second run score on a bad throw from the Trojans' shortstop, and picked up a solo homerun from Johnson in the second inning to make it 3-0.
Another pair scored in the third inning on a passed ball, and a sacrifice fly after McKenney and McCoy led off the inning with singles, although more chances were left on the bases as they loaded them with two outs, but a pitching change resulted in a line-out to center by Walker Sanders to keep the rally from putting up a big number.
From there, the Northwest offense would go silent, only getting another four baserunners and being held at bay by Jake Bailey who used a big curveball to keep the Rangers off balance for the next two innings before giving it off to a final reliever in the sixth.
On the other side, Northwest picked up another fantastic outing from Caleb Doty, who went six innings, only giving up one run in the top of the sixth. He saw the bases loaded with no one out before getting a fly out to shallow right, a groundout to short, which plated the run, and striking out the final batter that he faced.
"He was more of himself today," Carson said of his starter, who was coming off of a tough loss to Holmes last week. "Getting out of that jam in the sixth was really big for us."
Mississippi Delta put together another scare in the top of the seventh inning when Connor Young saw the bases loaded behind him after a dropped third strike, a walk, and a hit batter again put the Rangers in a jam with none out.
McCoy was called on to close the game, and other than a walk with one out that scored a run, he was able to work through his four batters without giving up the tying run and Northwest picked up the sweep.
UP NEXT –
The Rangers will play host to the #1 team in the country in Pearl River Community College (41-9, 23-3) on Saturday on Sophomore Day in a huge pair of games with playoff seeding on the line. Games are set for 2 and 5 P.M. with sophomore recognition in between the doubleheader.
Northwest enters the game in a tie for second place in the conference standings with #4 Jones College (34-13, 17-7) and will play their final doubleheader of the season in Ellisville with the Bobcats, with a chance to host the second pool of the Region 23 Tournament on the line. Jones will be on the road at Itawamba Community College (28-17, 15-19) on the same day.
ICC and East Central Community College (40-11, 16-8) are also in the hunt for a potential second seed with all four teams within two games of each other in the current standings.
Keep up with the results from this weekend by following along with Northwest athletics at nwccrangers.com or by following Ranger social media accounts.
