PERKINSTON — Kaden Irving came off the bench to drive in three runs with two doubles, helping Mississippi Gulf Coast past No. 4 Lansing 13-7 Thursday at Ken “Curly” Farris Field.
The Bulldogs (12-5) rallied from three separate deficit to storm past the Stars (2-2) to pull off the upset. Brennan Jones (So., Gulfport/West Harrison) picked up the win in relief, stopping a potential big inning with three strikeouts.
“We got off to a slow start, but there were so many contributions tonight,” Gulf Coast coach Bob Keller said. “Brennan Jones did a nice job of managing an inning after coming in with some traffic and getting some key punch outs for us. Kaden was big off the bench, and I thought we had some solid at-bats throughout the lineup.”
Gulf Coast pounded out 13 hits to rebound from a pair of heartbreaking losses Wednesday. The Bulldogs lost 6-5 to No. 3 Pearl River and 6-5 to Jones in Poplarville, both in walk-off fashion.
Irving (Fr., Gautier/Gautier) entered in the seventh inning with two on and one out. He roped a double into left field to tie the game at 7. Keondre Fields (Fr., Nesbit/Magnolia Heights) gave the Bulldogs their first lead by getting hit with the bases loaded, and Kannon Varnado (So., Gulfport/Harrison Central) lashed a single to left to make it 10-7.
Varnado went 3-for-5 with three RBI. Keilon Parnell (Fr., Pascagoula/Pascagoula) had three hits in four trips from the nine-hole, scoring twice. Brandon Cain (So., Mobile, Ala./Baker) went 2-for-2, but also got two walks and reached after being plunked.
Marc Stephens (So., Orange Beach, Ala./Gulf Shores) singled in his last at-bat to extend his hit streak to nine.
Gulf Coast pitchers struck out Stars batters 15 times, with Blake King (So., Petal/Petal) getting six. Jones entered with the bases loaded, nobody out and one across in the sixth. He only allowed one inherited runner to score, getting his three K’s around an error behind him.
Zach Hessler (Fr., Wellington, Fla./Wellington) struck out four in two innings.
“That’s a good ballclub, and they’re going to win a lot of games,” Keller said. “After some tough losses yesterday, that was a really good bounce-back by our guys. They had really good energy and played hard all the way through.”
Gulf Coast is back for another nine-inning game Saturday when Illinois Central visits Perk. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. Buy your tickets ahead of time to save money. It costs $7 for adults or $5 for youth online, or $10 and $7 at the gate. Tickets are available at http://mgcccbulldogs.com/tickets, and the game will be streamed at https://mgcccbulldogs.com/watch.
For more information on MGCCC’s 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
This post originally posted at https://www.mgcccbulldogs.com/landing/index by MGCCC Athletics
