CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College baseball team opened the 2023 campaign with a 7-1 setback to the University of Arkansas at Monticello on Friday, Feb. 3.
 
The Choctaw compiled six hits in the contest led by Duson, La., native Beau Kirsch with two singles. Luis Alcantara, in his MC debut, recorded the lone, extra-base knock for the squad with a double in the ninth inning. It set up the Blue and Gold's lone run of the game as it moved over pinch-hitter Jordan Rollins, who later scored on a Beau Bates infield groundout. Rollins reached on a six-pitch walk.
 
Gavin LeBlanc (0-1) took the decision on the mound. The Morse, La., product tossed five innings in the start and allowed three runs on five hits with seven walks and a pair of punch outs. Gabe Garner and Carson Turner saw action in relief. Garner strung together three-plus frames with three runs allowed on one hit, two walks and fanned two. Turner tossed the final two-thirds of the ninth with a run surrendered on one hit.
 
Derek Potts (1-0) picked up the win on the mound with seven innings of scoreless action as he fanned four in the start. Lane Ladner (1) logged the save as he allowed one run on one hit in two innings of relief with two walks and two strikeouts.
 
The two teams stood scoreless through the first innings of the game until the Boll Weevils plated the first two runs of the 2023 season in fourth off a Clay Lockett single to left field. The Green and White added another run in the sixth to hold a 3-0 advantage.
 
MC looked to breakthrough in the middle part of the outing as it left a combined six runners on base from the fourth through sixth innings, including the bases loaded in the fourth. It left 10 runners on the bags in the contest.
 
UAM delivered its final blow in the top of the ninth as Cade Cancilla blasted a grand slam over the left field wall to expand the margin to 7-0. The home run marked the seventh hit of the game for the visitors from the Natural State and their only extra-base knock of the affair.
 
The two teams return to action on Saturday, Feb. 4 with a doubleheader slated for 1 p.m.
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