By By Robby Atkinson / staff writer
March 7, 2004
The last two days for the Meridian Community College Eagles have been very different. The Eagles dropped two very tough games on Friday at Bossier Parish and less than 24 hours later MCC was back on the baseball diamond.
MCC was glad to return home on Saturday as the Eagles pounded out 16 hits in a run-rule shortened game over Danville by a final score of 12-4 at Scaggs Field. The Eagles moved to 10-3 for the season with the eight-run win.
"We need a little rest because the last two days have been very crazy for this baseball team," MCC head coach Mike Federico said. "We have played 27 innings in less than 24 hours and this reminds me a little of tournament play and I was also interested in see how our guys responded after a long bus trip."
MCC started the offense off in the second inning to take an early 1-0 lead over the Jaguars. Dillon Sudduth led off the inning by reaching first on a walk and moved to second on a stolen base to set up the first run for the Eagles. Sam Self delivered the first of six doubles in the game for MCC to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
Danville stormed right back to make the game a little interesting with a run in the third inning to make the score 1-1.
MCC would not trail the rest of the day as MCC responded with a run in the third to regain a one-run lead. Michael Murray led the third off with a double and crossed the plate moments later on an RBI ground out by Aaron George to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.
MCC ended the game with six doubles and Murray leads the team with seven doubles for the season.
"The extra base hits make it much easier as far as situational baseball goes," Federico said. "It also made us a little more aggressive on the bases today and that showed in the final score."
MCC started to pull away with the game in the fourth inning as Sudduth led the inning off with a double and Kyle Ginn followed with a double to give the Eagles a 3-1 edge. Murray singled in Ginn to make it 4-1.
Danville (1-2) tried to fight back in the fifth with a pair of runs to cut the lead to 4-3. Pabst led the inning off with a walk and Kurtis Galyen followed by reaching on an error at short by Murray to put runners at first and third. Matt Tesson came up with a long single to right that scored both runs to make it a one-run game.
MCC starting pitcher Chad Catalano was able to pitch out of the inning with a pair of runners on base to keep the score at 4-3. Catalano (3-0) went seven innings and surrendered eight hits, while striking out three.
"It was great to be able to come back and get a win today," Catalano said. "My goal was to be able to come out pitch a solid six or seven innings and I was able to do that today. We really needed to give our bullpen some rest."
MCC dominated the rest of the afternoon and Joey Lieberman continued to use the long ball. Lieberman led the fifth off with a deep home run to left to build the lead to 5-3. Lieberman finished the day with three hits and three RBIs to lead the MCC offense.
Josh Morgan followed with a single and Sudduth came up with another double that put a pair of runners in scoring position. Self drove in one run on a single and the second run crossed the plate on a double from Ginn to give MCC a comfortable 7-3 lead. Murray helped MCC score the fourth run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to right to make the score 8-3.
Danville added a run in seventh, but MCC put the game on ice with four runs to secure the victory. Ricky Newman led the seventh off with a triple and Murray followed with a walk to put runners at the corners. George added his second hit of the day that produced another run for MCC and moments later Murray scored on a passed ball to make the score 10-4.
Lieberman ended the game with a two-run single to center the gave MCC a 12-4 win. MCC will take a couple of days off from the diamond and on Tuesday Wabash will pay a visit to Scaggs Field for a doubleheader scheduled for 1 p.m.