CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College baseball team dropped a doubleheader to Shorter University on Saturday, Mar. 4 at Frierson Field at Dickins-Scoper Stadium. MC was clipped 5-3 in the second game of the twinbill after falling 16-13 in the opening game.
 
KEY STATS

• Five Choctaws hit over .400 over the two games led by Austin Warkentin's 4-for-5 effort with a home run and three RBI.
• Grant Barber posted a pair of multiple hit performances on the day with .500 clip at the dish (4-for-8), including a double.
• Hunter Wilson added four hits in the doubleheader to tie Warkentin and Barber with the most hits through the two games.
• MC out hit the Hawks in both outings as the Navy and Gold tallied 22 combined hits while SU totaled 21 on the day.
• Tim Holloway (0-2) was saddled with the loss in a relief effort in the opener. Holloway allowed five run on three hits with six strikeouts and two walks in 2.2 innings.
• Samuel Harrison (0-1) took the loss on the mound in the second contest with 5.0 innings of work in the start. The sophomore struck out four and walked five while allowing four runs – three earned – on three hits.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• In the opening game of day, MC jumped out to a 6-0 lead through the first two innings. The Choctaws plated their first run in their first trip to the plate and followed with a five-run, second inning. A pair of bases loaded walks and a Chance Whitten RBI single assisted in the largest scoring inning of the game for MC.
• After SU cut the lead in half in the third, the Choctaws regained a run with a Wilson RBI-double to score Barber and extend the lead to 7-3.
• A Ty Cherry grand slam home run in the fourth knotted the game at 7-all, but home runs from Kyle Smith and Austin Warkentin put MC back in front, 10-7, through six complete innings. Smith's solo shot gave the Navy and Gold an 8-7 lead and Warkentin's, two-run dinger extended the advantage to three runs.
• Following a Patrick Sanderson solo homer in the top of the seventh to cut the deficit to a run, Jack Leech added a two-run, single to put the Hawks back up 11-10. The three runs sparked a six-run, seventh inning for Shorter and placed them up 13-10.
• The Hawks added three more runs in the eighth leaving MC to its final at-bat.
• The Choctaws plated two runs with RBI from Wilson and Crim, but couldn't overcome the deficit.

 

• MC held a 3-1 lead through three innings in the second outing as the Choctaws picked up RBI hits from Smith, Wilson and Casey Echols in the third frame. Wilson's double put MC up 2-1 and Echols single extended the lead to 3-1.
• Shorter tied the contest in the fifth inning on a Cherry, two-run single and regained the lead in the sixth off a Bailey Gerstner RBI single that scored Ivan Nunez.
• The Hawks added an insurance run in the top of the seventh as Luis Acevedo singled to score Kaleb Thomas, who came on to pinch run in the frame.

 
NEXT UP
The two squads wrap up the series on Sunday, Mar. 5. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.