Eunice, La. - No. 13 Itawamba Community College defeated Northeast Mississippi Community College, 8-2, Tuesday to avoid elimination from the the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 23 Tournament.
While the Indians (36-12) rattled off 16 hits, freshman pitcher Ben Davis (Booneville) held the Tigers scoreless for almost eight full innings while striking out nine. Davis went seven and two thirds innings allowed only six hits and two runs. The two runs came in the bottom of the eighth with outs.
As Davis kept the Tigers off balance, the Indians quickly gave him ru support on a two-run scoring single from Ty Roberson (Ecru) in the second innings and extended the lead to 5-0 in the third on a Jaxin Settlemires (Kossuth) three-run home run.
The Indians held the 5-0 lead until Bo Rock (Amory) hit a two-run home run to the opposite field in the top of the seventh and Settlemires picked up his fourth RBI of the game on a single in the eighth.
After Northeast scored its two runs in the bottom of the eighth, Reese Ruth (Fulton) came in and retired four of the five batters he faced to preserve the win.
The Indians will play at Noon Wednesday against No. 5 Pearl River and the game will be available on lsuebengals.net/DigitalNetwork