Booneville, Miss. – Easton Hall could not believe his eyes after he made contact with the baseball late in the final game of Northeast Mississippi Community College's doubleheader on Tuesday evening.
Hall blasted a two-run home run over the right field fence to put the contest out of reach for nationally ranked East Mississippi Community College and secure an 8-1 win for the Tigers at Harold T. White Field.
The Lions used a late charge in the opener to take a 7-5 decision. With the split, the two squads remained in a tie for the top spot in the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) North Division standings following the first rotation of the schedule.
Hall left no doubt on his long ball that landed past the Booneville City Park's walking track that sits 20 feet beyond the wall. It was the first home run for the New Albany native at any level.
"Honestly, when I hit it I was like, 'I popped it up,'" said Hall. "I looked up and it was carrying. I didn't feel like I put my best swing on it. It was big, really big."
Hall's homer on the first pitch from East Mississippi reliever Hunter Swart capped a four-run sixth inning. Drew Wray led off with a single and scored on Jordan Montgomery's fielder's choice to make it 5-1 in favor of Northeast.
Heath Wood then chased Lions starter J'Daylin Jackson with a RBI triple that got past Chase Reeves down the right field line. Jackson (6-1) conceded seven earned runs and 12 hits, both season-highs, in the first loss of his collegiate career.
David Gibson (3-1) recorded his second straight victory over a team that appears in the current National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) poll. He went six innings and struck out six, both yearly bests.
The right-hander out of Kossuth High School allowed just one run on a Blake Key solo homer in the second. He rebounded from that and sat down 13 of the next 15 batters, including 10 in a row at one point.
"I take it one inning at a time really," Gibson said. "The coaches tell us to give them four and once I got to that point I hadn't thrown a whole lot of pitches so they said to keep going."
Trent Turner gave Gibson some breathing room in the bottom of the first when he belted a three-run home run that plated Montgomery and Wood. The team-leading fourth dinger of the season for Turner, a Brandon product, put the Tigers up 3-0.
The score remained 3-1 after Key's hit until the fifth when Ben Foster provided a clutch two-out RBI single that brought Wood home.
Wood also set the tone on defense in the first when he made a beautiful relay throw to Luke Stanley, who gunned Chase Nyman trying to score on Tyler Odom's double into the left field corner.
Evan Hickman came out of the bullpen in the seventh and notched three straight outs to wrap up the contest. The duo of Gibson and Hickman held No. 5 East Mississippi to just a lone run, which was its worst offensive output in conference play.
"I thought David's effort on the mound was huge," said Northeast head coach Kent Farris. "David has really thrown well here lately. He stepped it up and has been really big for us."
Solo home runs by Nyman and Reeves put the Lions (22-8, 9-3) ahead 2-1 after three frames in the first game of the day.
The Tigers responded and took their initial lead of the contest in the fourth. Courtesy runner Colby Williams scored from first base on Foster's double into the left field gap.
New Albany's Foster then touched home plate on Scott Pala's sacrifice fly to give Northeast (16-12, 9-3) a 3-2 advantage.
Montgomery created another run for the Tigers one inning later when he singled, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on Hall's sacrifice fly.
But East Mississippi responded in the sixth after loading the bases with only one out on two errors and a walk. Trent Waddell and Colton Caver had RBI hits to help the Lions leap ahead 7-4.
Jack Hurdle hustled for an infield single that plated Williams to get the Tigers within two runs, but Conner Burton worked around Wood's double in the seventh to grab his fifth save of the year.
Blake Drabik (0-1) was the hard-luck loser after giving up four runs, none of them earned, in 0.2 innings. Hunter Graham (3-1) was the winner for East Mississippi.
Wood, who hails from Corinth, headed Northeast's offensive effort with four hits, two of them for extra bases. Riley Alef, Stanley and Hurdle also had three base knocks apiece for the Tigers.
Ben Hellums, Hunt Halford and Mason Maxey each worked scoreless relief stints out of the bullpen in the lid lifter.
"In this league, things are so even and the team that plays the hardest is gonna come out on top the majority of the time," Farris said. "That's what I'm so proud of the guys up to this point about is how hard they play."
Northeast begins the second half of conference competition on Saturday, April 5 against Northwest Mississippi Community College. First pitch for game one, which is a scheduled nine-inning affair, is slated for 1 p.m. in Booneville.