Baseball outlasts Delta in game one

Baseball outlasts Delta in game one
Lee Adams/LetsGoICC.com 

MOORHEAD, MS – Game one of Itawamba Community College's baseball doubleheader with Mississippi Delta Community College was a back-and-fourth affair with five lead changes, and the Indians were able to outlast the Trojans to pick up a 7-6 win.

Coming off a big come from behind win against No. 4 Jones County Junior College, The Indians (18-15, 6-11 MACJC) carried momentum into the delta Wednesday and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame as Hagan Box (French Camp) hit a run scoring double and Timothy Rowe (Hernando) plated a run on a ground out.

After the Trojans (19-13-1, 6-9 MACJC) tied the contest at two, the Indians strung together four straight hits in the fourth, highlighted by a Tyreque Reed (Houlka) two run scoring single. Russ Payne (Fulton) and Delvin Zinn (Pontotoc) capped off the four run inning with back-to-back RBI singles.

The four runs lead would not last long though, as the Trojans rallied with a four run bottom of the fifth to tie the game at 6-6.

After five offensive driven innings, both teams' began to struggle at the plate as they combined for only four hits in the final four frames. However, the Indians were able to take advantage of a Trojan mistake in the seventh. Box singled with one out to advance Payne, who led off the inning being hit by a pitch, to third and Rowe drove in Payne for eventual game winning run on a sacrifice fly to left.

A combination of great pitching from Blake Bennett (Memphis, TN), who started the game, and Kaleb Barnes (Pontotoc) held the Trojans to only one hit in their final three innings at the plate to give the Indians the 7-6 road win.

Bennett threw eight innings and struck out four to pick up the win and improve to 4-3 this season and Barnes threw one inning of hitless ball to pick up his first save of the year.

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