CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College baseball team dropped a doubleheader to the No. 22 University of West Alabama at Frierson Field on Saturday. The Tigers (10-4, 3-2 Gulf South Conference) doubled up the Navy and Gold in the first game, 10-5, before taking a 4-2 decision in the nightcap. MC moves to 6-6 and 1-4 in conference play.
Chance Whitten paced the Choctaws offense batting .500 at the dish with three hits, including a pair of doubles in the setbacks. The Batesville, Miss., native posted a multiple hit effort in the first contest and added a double in the second outing.
Logan Ferrell and
Hunter Bolin logged multi-hit efforts in the opener while
Toler Robinson recorded the only multiple-RBI effort on the day in the twinbill.
MC starters
Jake Fraze (2-1) and
Taylor Olsen (0-1) received their first losses on the bump of the season. Fraze pitched 1.2 innings in the first game of the day allowing six runs on six hits with a pair of walks. Olsen tossed 4.1 frames in his first start of the season. The senior allowed four runs on eight hits with four walks and a trio of strikeouts.
Samuel Harrison pitched 7.1 innings in relief in the first contest as the freshman fanned nine batters while allowing four runs on eight hits with two walks.
Perry Turner,
Matt Payne and
Tyler Scholl combined for the final 2.2 frames in the second contest. The trio surrendered just three hits with a pair of KOs and one walk.
In the first contest, UWA jumped out to a 7-2 lead behind a four-run, second inning that was sparked by a two-run home run by Marcus Morrisette. MC cut the deficit to three runs behind a RBI single from
Caleb Upton in the third and a RBI-double from Ferrell in the fourth.
After UWA added a run on a sacrifice fly in the fifth, Mitch Holgate added the second, two-run homer of the day to cap the Tigers' scoring.
Austin Warkentin added a sac fly in the sixth to narrow the lead, but that would be end of the scoring for the Choctaws the remainders of the way.
MC jumped on the board first in the nightcap as
Hunter Hall singled in the second inning to score Whitten. UWA answered in the top of the third with a lead-off home run to knot the contest at 1-all.
The Choctaws replied in the bottom of the inning as
Toler Robinson delivered a RBI single to score Ferrell, but again Tigers used the big hit as Davis Aiken collected the fourth home run of the day with a three-run shot to right field to regain the lead and lift the Red and White to the doubleheader sweep.
Jonathan Porter (3-1) and Evan Anderson (3-1) claimed the wins on the bump for UWA.
Mississippi College returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 28 as it concludes the series with West Alabama. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
