MCC hammers host Northwest Florida State

By Robby Atkinson/Special to The Star

FORT WALTON, Fla. — The Meridian Community College Eagles scored its second straight win of the 2009 season with a convincing 13-1 win against the Northwest Florida State Raiders in the second day of the Carl McInnis Baseball Classic.

The Eagles scored 10 runs in the first inning and freshman Mandella Mingo threw 5 2/3 innings to lead MCC to the win over the Raiders.

"We got another solid performance on the mound," said MCC head coach Chris Rose. "He (Mingo) had great command of his pitches and had a great outing. I also thought our offense was fantastic once again today and we had such an awesome first inning."

The Eagles wasted no time and struck with a leadoff home run from freshman center fielder Corey Dickerson to give MCC the 1-0 lead. Dickerson has had six hits in ten plate appearances for the weekend for MCC.

"That home run really gave us a spark and hitting is contagious," added Rose. "Our hitting coach (Dillion Sudduth) has done a great job with our guys and their approach at the plate has been tremendous over the past two games."

The Eagles continued to pile up the runs as Jordan King followed with a walk after the home run by Dickerson, while Brent Tanner smashed a double to right field to set the table for sophomore catcher Wesley Thigpen. Thigpen drove both runs in a two-run single to extend the Meridian lead to 3-0. MCC would score its next run on a bases loaded walk and Drew Crosby would drive in the next run for the Eagles to make the score 5-0.

Dickerson would follow with a sacrifice fly that drove in the sixth run in the inning and Tanner put the game well out of reach moments later. Tanner connected on a towering grand slam home run over the right field wall to give MCC a 10-0 edge against Northwest Florida.

The lone run of the game for the home standing Raiders would come in the third inning on an RBI single by Justin Fradejas to cut the MCC lead to 10-1.

MCC would continue to play long ball as King would smash his second home run of the weekend in the fourth inning to make the score 11-1.

The Eagles would tack on three more runs in the fifth inning to fly away with the 13-1 win. Crosby drove in one of the three runs in the inning on a single and Dickerson added an RBI double.

Mingo got his first collegiate win for MCC by allowing only one earned run and collecting four strikeouts for MCC.