CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College baseball team continued their best start in 13 years with a 3-2 victory over Christian Brothers University to open Gulf South Conference play on Friday afternoon at Nadicksbernd Field.

The Choctaws (6-0, 1-0 GSC), who opened the 2002 season with seven straight victories, had to grind out a win for the first time this season after outscoring their opponents 79-10 over the first six games.

Senior Brooks Fortenberry (2-0) was masterful on the mound, allowing just five hits and striking out six in 7.0 innings. Senior Andy Olmsted pitched a scoreless eighth inning, while junior Tyler Scholl, the all-time leader in saves at Northwest MS CC, pitched around a leadoff single in the ninth to collect his first save as a Choctaw.

Fortenberry now has 140 career strikeouts, which ranks 10th in MC history.

MC would get on the board first when sophomore Hunter Bolin drove in freshman Colton Johnson with a groundout in the second inning.

The Bucs (3-4, 0-1 GSC) answered with two runs in the bottom of the second inning when Charles Kelly doubled to drive in Mac Cooley and Cameron Coker. It would be the only runs allowed by Fortenberry, and one was unearned after a Choctaw error.

Junior Garrett Odom, who led MC with two hits in the game, tied the contest in the fifth inning with an RBI double that scored junior Caleb Upton, who walked with two outs in the inning. Upton walked three times in the game, and the Choctaws earned 10 free passes in the contest.

The Choctaws had their chances to take leads over the next two innings but would leave 15 runners on base in the game.

They finally broke through in the eighth inning when junior Hunter Hall scored on a wild pitch by Michael Lartigue, who took the loss for CBU.

The Choctaws will be back in action on Saturday for a doubleheader with the Bucs beginning at noon.