By By Austin Bishop/EMG Regional Sports Director
May 12, 2002
Complete games and a lot of hitting that's what coaches usually are looking for on the third day of the NJCAA Division I Region 23 Baseball Tournament that has been played at Meridian Community College's Scaggs Field for each of its 17 years.
That's almost what Jones Junior College head coach Bobby Glaze got on Saturday afternoon, as his Bobcats bashed out out 16 hits, including three homers, on the way to a 13-5 run-rule win over Gulf Coast in an elimination game.
Jones starter Chris Hollomon went six of the seven innings necessary on the mound to move his mark to an impressive 10-1 on the season. He limited Gulf Coast to six hits for the game.
The win pushed Jones into Saturday night's elimination game that determined one of the teams in today's championship game.
Gulf Coast, which finishes the season at 22-24, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
Jones, now 29-23, picked up a single run in the bottom of the second on a solo homer run by Chad McIlwain. Gulf Coast answered with a solo homer in the top of the third by Tab Beadle. The Bobcats used three singles, including an RBI hit by Josh Sullivan, in the bottom of the inning to cut it to 3-2.
Gulf Coast stretched it to 4-2 in the top of the inning when Scotty Scott doubled and then scored on a single by Ricky Smith.
Jones then began to break the game open, with four runs in the bottom of the fourth and five more in the fifth.
A Gulf Coast error allowed three unearned runs in the fourth inning, with two of those coming in on a double by Sullivan. Craig Bush's run-scoring double and a two-run homer by Ricky Breazeale keyed the five-run fifth.
Bush, a sophomore from West Jones High School, went 4-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs and three runs scored for Jones, while Sullivan had three hits and three RBIs and Wyn Spencer added a solo homer.
Smith had two hits for the Bulldogs.