Solid pitching leads MCC to sweep over Holmes

By Ryan Satcher/special to The Star

Meridian Community College used solid pitching and timely hitting to stay hot with a pair of division wins over Holmes on Saturday afternoon.

The Eagles scored four late runs to take a 7-5 win in the opener and used a strong pitching performance from Kedrick Martin to take the second game 6-3.

"He threw pretty well," said Meridian coach Chris Rose of Martin. "He didn't spot his fastball as well as he did against Hinds but he pitched well and Chase Porch came in and looked good. We struck out a lot of hitters today and pitched pretty well."

The Eagles trailed just once the entire afternoon and hit well enough to win each game.

"We got hits when we needed them," said Rose. "I'd like to get some hits when we don't need them, too. We have the postseason coming up and the adrenaline that comes with it. That's when we usually play our best ball. We have to go play well against East Mississippi on Tuesday and we'll go from there."

In the second game on Saturday, Martin went five innings and struck out seven batters while allowing just three hits and two runs.

The Eagles struck for three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take control of the game early.

Josh Demoney walked to open the inning and Matt Holliman followed with a double to give Meridian runners at second and third.

An error allowed Demoney to score to make the scored 1-0.

Toddrick Stevenson followed with an RBI single. A run then scored on a wild pitch to make the score 3-0.

Holmes limited the damage to just three runs by throwing out Stevenson at the plate when he tried to score from third on a fly ball.

Martin didn't allow a hit until the third inning when Holmes strung together its only three hits off the Meridian starter.

Chris Herron singled and Chance Cooper followed with a single to open the inning.

After a fielder's choice cut down Herron, Holmes pulled off a double steal to move runners to second and third with one out.

Keith Williams brought in the first run for the Bulldogs with a groundout and Joshua Boren followed with an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2.

The Eagles added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.

A bunt by Scott Mosley was originally called fair with one out in the inning but the call was overturned to send Mosley back to the plate.

The left-hander was unaffected by the reversal and ripped the very next pitch over the right field wall to give Meridian a 4-2 lead.

The Eagles got a double by Demoney and a pair of walks to load the bases but left them loaded on a fly out to center.

In the fifth inning, Drew Snider had his second single of the game for the Eagles to open the inning and Michael Guerrero followed with a two-run blast to stretch the lead to 6-2.

Holmes took advantage of a Meridian error in the sixth to score a run but Porch didn't allow a hit in his two innings of work to secure the 6-3 victory for the Eagles.

In the opener, Meridian scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a come-from-behind win over the Bulldogs.

The Eagles scored three runs in the fifth to take a 3-0 lead but trailed 4-3 going into the sixth inning.

Demoney had a clutch hit in the sixth as the Eagles scored four runs and held on for the victory.

Meridian will be back in action at home on Tuesday against East Mississippi Community College.