Southwest Mississippi Community College split its season-ending doubleheader with East Mississippi Tuesday night in Scooba, winning a wild opener 15-14 in 11 innings before dropping the finale 6-5.
The Bears finished the campaign at 23-21 overall and 12-16 in the MACJC. East Mississippi ended the year at 16-28, 12-16.
L.D. Coney led off Game 1 for the Bears with a double to right field, the first of his two hits in the game. He then set the team’s career record for runs scored at 84 when he crossed the plate on Ross Buckley’s double. Coney also finished the season with the team’s record for walks with 49.
Later in the inning, Darian Tunstall doubled, moved to second on a Steven Williams base hit and scored on an error. Brady Anderson then singled to score Williams and put the Bears on top 3-0.
The lead was short-lived, however, as the host Lions sent 11 batters to the plate to take a 7-3 lead in the bottom of the first.
The Bears trailed 8-3 in the top of the third when Tunstall lined a pitch down the left field line for a double. A two-out single by Duncan Cornfoot then scored Tunstall to pull the Bears to within four at 8-4.
With his team trailing 10-4, Buckley led off the top of the fifth with a double and scored on a Kaleb Clarke triple. Tunstall’s third two-bagger of the game then scored Jarvis Warner, who was running for Clarke. Cornfoot and Alex Smith both added an RBI single before Buckley’s single sent them home to make the score 10-10. The two RBIs put Buckley in a tie for the team’s career lead with 68.
Two singles and a hit batter resulted in a run for the Lions, and an 11-10 lead, in the bottom of the fifth.
Down 12-10, the Bears scored twice in the top of the eighth to knot the game at 12-12. Anderson singled with two outs and later scored, along with John Marcus McDowell, on Tanner Whittington’s clutch single to right field.
With neither team able to produce any additional runs in the eighth or ninth innings, the game went into extra play.
In the top of the tenth, Williams reached on a lead-off single and later scored when Jesse Pittman reached on a sacrifice bunt. A Dylan Spiers base hit then scored Anderson, on base with his fourth hit of the game, to put the Bears up 14-12.
The Lions refused to go quietly, tying the game at 14-14 on a two-run homer in their half of the 10th, forcing the game to the 11th inning.
The Bears picked up the winning run in the top of the 11th when Tunstall singled for his fourth hit of the game and later scored on a two-out error.
Clarke picked up the win with two innings of relief, surrendering two runs on four hits while striking out a batter. Pittman had a single in the game.
The Bears took a 4-0 lead in the second inning of the finale. Cornfoot reached base on a lead-off walk, Whittington followed with a single and both scored on Warner’s one-out hit. Warner then scored on the first of two Pittman hits and Coney’s double, the first of his three hits in the game, scored Pittman.
After the Lions made it 4-1 in the bottom of the third, the Bears picked up their final run in the top of the fifth to move out to a 5-1 lead. Buckley led off the inning with his school career-record 29th double then scored on Whittington’s ground out.
Two walks, two singles and a sacrifice fly gave the Lions two runs in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 5-3. They picked up the winning runs in the sixth on a single, hit batter and three-run homer. Brady Wilson took the loss on the mound for the Bears, giving up three runs on two hits. He struck out one batter. Walt Aldridge and Cornfoot both had a single for the Bears.
