MCC Baseball Falls At Home to Northwest Florida

From School Reports

The Meridian Community College Eagles were thrilled at the thought of coming back home to open a five-game home stand at Scaggs Field, but the Eagles were also looking to get back on the winning track as well. MCC entered play Friday night against Northwest Florida looking to snap a four-game losing streak and the Eagles were hoping home field advantage would be just the recipe it needed.

The Eagles unfortunately couldn’t reverse its fortunes Friday night as Northwest Florida came to Scaggs Field to earn a 7-4 road victory. The Raiders improved to 13-6 with the victory, while MCC fell to 8-10 overall for the 2014 season. The Eagles also saw its losing streak reach five games with the setback to Northwest Florida. MCC will return to action Saturday afternoon to continue its home stand in a pivotal doubleheader against East Mississippi Community College beginning at 2 p.m. The two teams played last Tuesday at Gerald Poole Field on the campus at EMCC with the two teams splitting a pair of games. MCC captured the first game of the twin bill earlier in the season over the Lions by a final count of 8-3, while EMCC fought back to take Game Two 3-0.

Meridian fell behind 5-0 heading into the late stages of the game, but were unable to muster enough offense in the end to mount a comeback over the Raiders. The Eagles cut the lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning with one run crossing the plate on an infield single by Paul Angel, while the second run of the frame scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded.

Northwest Florida answered with a two-run single by Thomas Lopez in the top of the eighth inning to move its lead back to five runs at 7-2. MCC scratched one run in the bottom of the eighth inning on an infield single by Goose Yates and the Eagles added one more run in the ninth inning on an RBI single by Angel to make the score 7-4. MCC was able to load the bases with one out with an opportunity to complete the comeback, but Dalton Thomas and Scott Votaw would each strikeout to end the game for the Eagles.

Brian Browning picked up the win on the mound for the Raiders with a superb performance by working seven innings and collecting 11 strikeouts. Michael Druhan suffered the tough loss out of the bullpen for the Eagles.

MCC finished the contest with 12 total hits, while Northwest Florida had 13 hits in the victory. Yates led the Eagles at the plate with three base hits, while Mac Seibert and Angel each added a pair of hits.