Baseball playoffs delayed to Saturday, Sunday in Pearl River
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com
FULTON, MS -- Itawamba Community College's opening round of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) baseball playoffs against No. 9 Pearl River Community College has been postponed due to severe weather sweeping across the state this week.
Originally scheduled to begin Friday night in Poplarville, the first game of the best-of-three playoff series will be Saturday at 6:00 p.m. with Game 2 scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Sunday. If needed, the third and decisive game will follow shortly after the conclusion of Game 2.
"It's like Coach (Andy) Kirk said when softball got moved 'it's just one of those things,'" said Collier. "This time of year you got to be ready to go no matter what day you are playing. Hopefully this will give the guys some more time to take care of finals and focus on playing their best ball of the season."
The Indians (23-21, 13-11 North) swept Holmes Community College (18-26, 8-16 North) in the final doubleheader of the regular season to earn the No. 4 seed in the North and the program's 14th-straight trip to the playoffs.
Sophomore pitcher and Mississippi State signee Ben Hudspeth (Tupelo) kept the Bulldogs' bat quiet throughout the first game of the twin bill giving up one run on five hits while freshman second baseman Brayden Owen (Tupelo) went two-for-three with four RBI highlighted by a two-run home run in the Indians' 7-1 playoff-clinching victory.
In Game 2 against Holmes, sophomore pitcher and Southeastern Louisiana signee Dylan Earnest (Hamilton) went 6 1/3 innings of hitless baseball before the Bulldogs rallied to force the game into extra innings with a pair of runs in the seventh. Redshirt freshman first baseman Drew Wheeler (Mooreville) knocked in the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth to give ICC a 4-3 win to close out the regular season.
The game-winning hit was the second time this season Wheeler lifted the Indians to victory with a walk-off in extra innings.
The ninth-ranked Bobcats of Pearl River (36-10, 19-5 South) secured the South Division's top seed by sweeping Southwest Mississippi Community College (19-27, 8-16 South) to close out the regular season on Saturday.
ICC has won six of their last eight games after starting the season losing eight of their first 13 games and have lost 10 games by one run this season. Pearl River has won 11-straight and 14 out of their last 15 games.
"You throw everything from the regular season out the window," Collier said. "It was a fight to get in the playoffs and it's going to be the same kind of fight every game of the playoffs. It's a brand new season and anything can happen."
You can listen to the Indians' playoff run on WAFM 95.7 FM (Amory) with the Davis Ford Pre-Game Show starting 20 minutes before the opening pitch of each game. The game can be heard online at www.fm95radio.com.
For more information on ICC baseball, follow ICC Athletics on Twitter (@LetsGoICC).