CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College baseball team salvaged its Gulf South Conference series against the University of West Alabama with a 6-5 victory in the series finale on Saturday, March 11. The Tigers (10-11, 7-5 GSC) clinched the series with a 7-3 win in the first game of the day. MC moved to 7-15 and 3-6 in the league following the nightcap.
 
The Choctaw totaled 13 hits in the the doubleheader as Caleb Reese and Rhett Birdsong led the squad with two hits each for the day. Cole Drake joined Birdsong as one of two multiple-RBI performances on the day. Drake drove in two in the finale while Birdsong plated a pair in the opener.
 
Alex McWhorter (1-1) garnered the victory on the mound for the Blue and Gold. He tossed two scoreless frames in relief as he fanned two and allowed just one hit.
 
Trailing 2-0 through two and half frames in the final game of the series, the Choctaw rallied for five runs in the bottom of the third. Beau Bates kick-started the scoring with a two-out, RBI single that pushed Lane Willis across the dish. Willis led off the inning with a single up the middle. Bates' base hit started the streak of four, two-out hits for the Blue and Gold in the frame as Drake headlined the scoring with a two-run home run. Birdsong and Reese each added RBI hits during the run.
 
UWA rallied in the fifth with three runs of its own and retired the Choctaw in order in the bottom half of the inning to stand deadlocked at 5-all through five frames. After the Blue and Gold returned the favor in the top of the sixth, Luis Alcantara lifted a bases-loaded, sacrifice fly into right field to score J.T. Vance for the potential game winner. The Tigers looked to knot the contest again with a two-out, double in the top of the seventh by Blake Vineyard, but McWhorter's second strikeout of the game ended the contest with Vineyard stranded at second.
 
Jacob Smith (4-3) tossed all six frames for the Red and White and took the loss on the mound. He allowed six runs on seventh hits in the complete-game effort with 11 strikeouts and a pair of walks.
 
In the opener, the Choctaw held a 2-1 lead through the first four frames as Birdsong hit a two-run home run in the second to grab an early advantage in the second. The lead stood until UWA knotted the contest at 2-all in the top of the fifth and regained the lead in the top of the seventh on a Jake Nemith RBI-single. The Tigers added a three spot in the eighth to widen the margin and plated one more in the top of the ninth before Kolby McWilliams pushed across Vance with a RBI-single in the home half of the final inning.
 
Kyle Collet (0-2) took the loss on the mound as he allowed one run along with a walk and strikeout in 1.2 frames in relief.  Jordan Felps (1-1) pitched two scoreless and hitless frames and fanned one in relief to pick up the victory for the Tigers.
 
Mississippi College returns to action on Tuesday, March 14 as it travels to Arkadelphia, Ark., for a non-conference, midweek contest against Henderson State University. It marks the second meeting this season as MC run-ruled the Reddies 18-8 in Clinton. First pitch is at 3 p.m.
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