Northeast Mississippi Community College sophomore outfielder Justin Neal of Southaven made sure the Tiger baseball team stayed at the top of the division on Saturday, April 13.

Neal, who has homered in three straight games for Northeast, led the Tigers to a sweep of Northwest Mississippi Community College at Harold T. White Field in Booneville 6-5, 7-1.

With the win, Northeast jumped to the top of the North Division standings as Mississippi Delta Community College split with East Mississippi Community College in Moorhead on Saturday. East Mississippi captured the first game 6-2 before dropping a 5-1 decision to Mississippi Delta.

Northeast (22-13, 13-5 in North Division) currently has a one-game lead over Mississippi Delta for the top spot in the division and holds a two-game lead over Northwest Mississippi after taking all four games from the Rangers during the regular season. Itawamba sits fourth in the division while Holmes and East Mississippi are within a game of each other for fifth and sixth in the North Division. Coahoma, which captured its second division of the year on Sunday, is 2-14 in the league.

Northeast has just three North Division dates left and two are at Harold T. White Field where the Tigers are 12-5 on the year. The Tigers host Coahoma on Wednesday, April 17 before traveling to Itawamba on Saturday, April 20.

Northeast will cap its home season with a North Division doubleheader against Mississippi Delta on Saturday, April 27.

Neal made sure that the Tigers controlled their own destiny in the North Division against Northwest.

Against the Rangers, Neal was 5-for-7 with three home runs, six runs batted in, four runs scored and walked once.

Neal opened up the doubleheader with the Rangers with a 2-for-3 performance with a home run, two runs scored and a pair of runs batted in.

Neal topped his opening game performance with his outing against the Rangers in the nightcap. The Southaven native went 3-for-4 in the second game with two home runs, a pair of runs scored and four runs batted in.

In the opener, Northeast rallied from a 4-0 deficit with six runs over the fifth and sixth innings and held on the win in the seventh.

Northwest (22-13, 11-7) jumped out to a four-run advantage behind back-to-back home runs from Dylan Castoria and Jay King in the third and a two-run RBI single by Castoria in the fourth. 

However, Neal and the rest of the Tigers would not go away quietly.

After Josh Mills, Will Robertson and Neal led off the fifth with singles, Chris Aichinger came through with a groundout to short that chased Mills home and broke the Northwest shutout.

Dalton Sims tied the game with a two-out, two-run single through the right side that tallied Neal and Robertson and put the pressure on Ranger ace Cody Reed.

Northeast chased Reed less than an inning later as Robertson and Neal did in the Ranger pitcher.

Robertson came through with a single to right field that scored Heath Wood and Neal gave the Tigers the lead for good with his first home run of the day.

Northwest mounted a rally in the seventh as King scored on a throwing error but Jonathan Morrison was able to quell the Ranger threat with a strike out and a fly out to left to seal the win for the Tigers.

In the nightcap, Neal gave Mississippi State University transfer Tanner Gaines all the run support the Baldwyn native would need with his second home run of the day.

Neal belted a three-run home run to right that scored Mills, Wood and himself and staked the Tigers to a 3-0 lead early.

Luke Stanley and Wood gave the host a 5-0 advantage with runs in the second and third. Wood's fielder's choice chased home Ethan Estes while Stanley's single to left tallied Aichinger.

Northwest broke the shutout in the sixth as Castoria scored on a wild pitch but Robertson and Neal made up for the run an at bat later.

Robertson and Neal welcomed Northwest pitcher Reed Davis to the game with back-to-back home runs to begin the bottom of the sixth. Robertson collected his team-leading fifth home run of the year with a solo blast to left while Neal connected on his third home run of the day with a homer to right one at bat later.

While Neal and Robertson were leading the Tiger offense, Gaines was controlling the game on the mound.

Gaines tossed his third complete game of the season as he held the Ranger lineup in check.

Gaines scattered six hits over his seven innings of work while allowing just one run to Northwest Mississippi – in the sixth inning. During his time on the mound for Northeast, Gaines improved to 6-1 on the year with the win and struck out five against just one walk.