Defensive mistakes cost the Southwest Mississippi Community College baseball team Sunday as it began the 2012 season on a sour note by dropping a pair of games at Baton Rouge Community College.
The Bears fell to Illinois Central College 9-2 while host BRCC defeated the Bears 4-0.
The games were originally scheduled for Friday, but were moved because of inclement weather.
In the opener, mental mistakes cost the Bears as ICC (1-2) scored five times in the first inning. Southwest picked up a run in the third when left fielder Jawon Jackson reached second on an error and later scored on a Kade Scivicque ground out to first.
Southwest added another run in the top of the fifth inning when Chris Gill reached on a fielder’s choice and later scored on Scivicque’s two-out double. That proved to be as close as the Bears would get as the Cougars added four extra runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Shelby Johnson pitched one inning and took the loss for Southwest. Also seeing time on the mound were Jared Fiorito, Tyler Kendrick and Chase Wilkins.
In Game 2, fielding errors in the first inning allowed BRCC to cross the plate twice with all the runs it would need. BRCC (3-6) added two more in the fifth to extend its lead to 4-0.
Trey Setzer allowed only two hits in four innings but took the loss for Southwest. Jason Milton and Clint McDaniel also pitched. Connor Goodspeed, Wes Gill, Chance Schmidt and Scivicque all recorded hits for the Bears.
Southwest (0-2) returns to the diamond Tuesday when it travels to Moorhead to face the Mississippi Delta Trojans at 1 p.m.
