The 2018 baseball season came to an end for East Central Community College as the Warriors came up on the short end of a best-of-three National Junior College Athletic Association Region 23 playoff series against Itawamba Community College May 10-11 at the Clark-Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur.
Itawamba won the first game on Thursday night 11-2 in eight innings. The Warriors returned the favor and run-ruled the Indians 9-1 in seven innings in the second game of the series Friday afternoon. The Indians recovered to win the deciding third game Friday evening 10-5.
East Central finished its season with a 31-18 record.
In the opening game of the series, Itawamba jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and the Warriors never threatened. Despite both teams getting eight hits, five East Central pitchers put 11 Indians on base by walk and another two by hit by pitch. Two runs scored on an East Central error.
Jay Johnston of Lake had a pair of hits for the Warriors.
In East Central’s game two win, Alex Hay set the tone early for the Warriors with a grand slam in the bottom of the second inning for a 4-0 lead. Cain Cleveland of Newton County and Hay each had RBI singles.
Jacob Edwards out of Newton County had three hits.
In the deciding third game, East Central fell behind 6-1 after five innings. The Warriors closed the deficit to 6-3 in the sixth with back to back homers. East Central plated two more in the seventh on a sacrifice fly and an Itawamba error on a ground ball.
East Central could not keep the momentum, however, as the Indians scored four in the eighth to get the final 10-5 win.
Itawamba out-hit East Central 18 to 6 in the deciding third game.
