By By Robby Atkinson/Special to The Star
March 7, 2001
The Meridian Community College Eagles used a late rally and a run-rule to sweep a doubleheader from Crowder Community College in local junior college baseball action.
The Eagles improved to 11-5 with the sweep and the visiting Roughriders from Crowder dropped to 4-5 on the season.
MCC 4, Crowder 3: Dustin Cliburn drove in the winning run in the eighth inning on a single to secure a comeback win for Meridian.
The Eagles fell behind early as Crowder took the early lead on a solo home run by David Thorpe to give the Roughriders a 1-0 edge in the first inning.
Meridian quickly answered with a run in the second inning of action to tie the game at 1-1. The run for the Eagles came off an RBI double by Chris Knight and gave MCC some momentum.
Crowder took the lead back in the third inning on an RBI groundout by Skip Weast to put the Roughriders back on top.
Meridian made two crucial errors in the fourth to allow Crowder to build its lead. One run crossed the plate on a ground out by Jared Sanders to make the Crowder lead 3-1.
Meridian exploded in the sixth inning with a mammoth two-run homer by Cliburn to tie the game at 3-3. Neither team managed to get a run in the seventh inning, but the Eagles secured the win in the eighth.
After back-to-back singles by Travis Garner and Rory Thornton the Eagles struck for the win. Cliburn once again came through with a single to lead Meridian to the 4-3 victory. Martin LaRocca got the pitching win in relief for the Eagles and LaRocca improved to 3-1 on the season.
MCC 14, Crowder 4: Meridian only needed six innings of baseball to take the sweep over Crowder.
The Eagles were led at the plate by freshman Tyler Scarbrough and Trave Hopkins, each of whom homered in the game. Travis Garner picked up a double, Antoin Gray collected a pair of singles and Dustin Cliburn had one single for the Eagles.
Jason Wimberly picked up the win to improve to 2-0 on the season.
MCC returns to action Friday night when the Eagles host Three Rivers at 6:00.