By By Austin Bishop/Special to The Star
May 13, 2001
Mississippi Gulf Coast scored three runs in the sixth and four in the seventh to post a 9-6 come-from-behind win over Bossier Parish (La.) Community College in the winners' bracket finals of the NJCAA Division I Region 23 Baseball Tournament on Saturday night.
The win pushes the 31-23 Bulldogs into the finals of the tournament at 4 p.m. today. Jones Junior College an 18-17 winner over Meridian on Saturday plays Bossier Parish, now 45-14 on the year at 1 p.m. to determine who will play Gulf Coast for the title.
If Gulf Coast loses the 4 p.m. game, then the same two teams will play for the title at 1 p.m. on Monday at Meridian Community College's Scaggs Field.
Bossier Parish jumped on the Bulldogs for four runs in the bottom of the first inning, but Gulf Coast brought in Josh Smith to pitch with two outs in the inning and he took over the game.
He went 8.1 innings and allowed just one earned run the rest of the way as the Bulldogs backed him up with 16 hits.
Gulf Coast did struggle in the field, making six errors.
It was shoddy defense that actually led to Bossier's big first inning.
After a two-out error allowed the second run of the inning to score, the Gulf Coast center field misplayed a fly ball by Danny Guidry into a run-scoring triple. Guidry then scored on another Gulf Coast infield error.
Gulf Coast picked up a run in the third but Bossier picked up one in the bottom of the fourth to make it 5-1.
The Bulldogs the strung together four consecutive hits to lead off the sixth inning to score three runs and cut it to 5-4.
Gulf Coast put together four straight hits once again in the seventh on the way to scoring four more runs and going up 8-5.
Bossier used a pair of Gulf Coast errors to cut it to 8-6 in the seventh, before the winners added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.
Brandon Migues (9-3) took the loss for Bossier, allowing 11 hits, seven earned runs and four walks in 6.1 innings. Smith (2-3) earned the win for Gulf Coast.
Matt Forman had three hits to lead Gulf Coast at the plate, while Justin Bourque, Danny Guidry and Randy Catchot had two each for BPCC.