MCC Sweeps BRCC To Clinch Miss-Lou Conference Title

From School Reports

The Meridian Community College Eagles entered its weekend series against Baton Rouge Community College needing a pair of victories to claim the Miss-Lou Conference Championship. The Eagles swept past the Bears (10-0, 10-9) Saturday afternoon at Goldsby Field to claim the 2012 Miss-Lou Conference Championship. This marks the first Miss-Lou Conference Championship for MCC since 2010 and the twelfth overall in school history.

"It is great to keep the tradition of winning championships going at Meridian," said MCC head coach Chris Curry. "This is just the first step of getting back to Grand Junction and playing for a national championship."

MCC will now have the honor of hosting the 2012 Region 23 Tournament at Scaggs Field on May 11-13. The tournament will consist of all three teams from the Miss-Lou Conference which include: MCC, Baton Rouge, and Delgado. The Eagles will be the number one seed in the tournament and Baton Rouge will be the second seeded team in the field. Delgado will be the number three seed in the tournament after finishing with a Miss-Lou Conference record of 5-7.

MCC improved to 31-19 overall with the sweep of Baton Rouge and moved its Miss-Lou Conference record to 7-4, while Baton Rouge dropped to 25-28 and 5-6 in league play. The final game of the three-game series between MCC and Baton Rouge will take place Sunday afternoon at Goldsby Field beginning at 1 p.m.

MCC                 10

BRCC                0

Sophomore Wes Stokes (6-0) tossed his second complete game shutout of the season in the first game of the doubleheader. The two complete game shutout victories for Stokes this season have both been against Baton Rouge. Stokes allowed two hits, one walk, and collected six strikeouts over his seven innings of work.

"He (Stokes) has been great all season and he signifies what it means to be a number one starter in our rotation," added Curry. "He did a great job commanding the strike zone and it was another outstanding outing."

MCC finished the game with 10 hits and former Clarkdale standout Kasey Hinton led the way with three hits and one RBI. Wade Wass finished the game with a pair of hits and one of the hits was a solo home run that came in the fourth inning. Wass brought his home run total to 20 for the season and that currently leads the NJCAA. Wass is now just four home runs shy of tying both the single season and career home run records at Meridian Community College.

"Our offense really produced today and we just kept expanding the lead in the first game today. We had some good approaches at the plate and we did a solid job overall."

Former Meridian High standout Dallas Hannah added his second home run of the season with a three-run shot in the seventh inning.

MCC               10

BRCC              9

The Eagles had to fight off a late rally in the bottom of the seventh inning to hold on for a one-run victory to earn the sweep of Baton Rouge. The Bears scored five runs in the final inning and had a pair of runners in scoring position, but MCC was able to secure the final two outs.

MCC finished the game with 14 hits and had a 9-0 lead at one point during the game. Jonathan Youngblood led the Eagles with three hits and Hinton added a pair of base hits in the win. Gabe Woods had a two-run double, while Mike Williams added a pinch hit RBI triple in the game.

Frank Hutton added a single and a run scored in the game and Samuel Peterson chipped in with an RBI single in the sweep for MCC.

Dalton Short (1-1) picked up the pitching win for the Eagles by working four shutout innings, while Jackson Lowery earned his first save of the season.