Baseball drops 17-inning heartbreaker in season finale

POPLARVILLE, MS – Hinds right fielder Matt Corder delivered a game-winning two-run home run in the bottom of the 17th inning, as the No. 20 Eagles earned a 5-3 win over the No. 14 Indians in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament at Pearl River Community College on Thursday.

Trailing 2-0, the Indians plated three runs in the top of the fifth inning.

Jonathan Whittington (Columbus) drew a walk to start the inning and scored on a one-out single by Hayden Harris (Pontotoc). Riley Davis singled and scored on a single by Kylan Carter (Houston). Harris would round out the scoring in the inning on a single by Tyler Murphy (Columbus).

Hinds would cash in on an Indian error to pull even in the home half of the inning on a sacrifice fly.

David Rowland (Florence, Ala.) entered in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out and the winning run on second. The sophomore quickly struck out the next two Hinds batters to force the game into extra innings.

The Indians would only get three runners on base in extra innings – only one moved into scoring position.  The Eagles pit four runners on base – three would move into scoring position in eight extra innings.

Indian starter Coleton Ausbern (Nettleton) exited the game to applauds from both fans bases after marching through 8.1 innings of work to give up three runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out five.

Rowland was the pitcher of record for the Indians after giving up two runs, one earned, on five hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in 7.2 innings.

Davis went 4-for-8 with a run scored while Murphy finished 3-for-7 with a RBI.

The Indians finished the season with a 25-15 overall record and 19-9 in conference.

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