FULTON, Miss. – The No. 8 Indians scored earlier and often in their MACJC opener, and held off the No. 16 Mississippi Gulf Coast Bulldogs' late charge to pick up the 7-4 victory.
Kyle Crigger (Corinth) had a big day at the plate going 3-for-5 with 3 RBI and started the scoring with a solo home run in the opening frame. The freshman infielder picked up his two other RBI with a single in the fourth that put the Indians up 5-0.
The Indians (15-2, 1-0 MACJC) picked up two additional runs in the in the first four frames off a sacrifice fly by Kyle Weaver (Courtland) and a RBI single by Justin Medlin (Ripley), who went 2-for-3.
Another freshman LaBryant Siddell (Belden) extended the Indians lead to 7-0 off a 2-run homerun to left and went 2-for-3 in the contest.
While the bats were hot, freshman right hander Houston Harding (Walls) was taking care of business on the hill as he threw six scoreless innings and retired the power hitting Bulldogs in order for the first three innings.
After six innings of being kept off balance, the Bulldogs hit a pair of home runs, one solo and a 3-run, but Crigger took over on the hill to to pick up the two inning save to preserve the victory.
Harding picked up the win to improve to 4-0 by throwing six and two thirds innings and striking out seven.
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