On the Net (video):
Trent Turner recalls his 8th home run of the season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADRSCVmTCSE
Booneville, Miss. - Trent Turner exacted a bit of revenge against an old high school foe on Thursday during the opening day of the 2014 Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) State Tournament.
Turner delivered a towering home run that gave Northeast Mississippi Community College an early advantage, but top ranked Jones County Junior College scored 12 straight runs from that point to secure a 14-4 victory at Harold T. White Field.
The long ball, a two-run shot that sailed over the wooden centerfield wall with two outs in the first inning, came off Bobcats starter Westin Stringer and gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
Stringer and Turner faced each other multiple times at the prep level while Northeast's freshman designated hitter was still starring at Brandon High School.
"I knew he had really good stuff and I knew he depended on his changeup a lot," Turner said. "So I was just sitting on the changeup and he threw me one up in the zone and I put a good swing on it."
It was the eighth home run of the season for Turner, who leads the Tigers (27-19) with a .425 batting average, .494 on-base percentage and .701 slugging percentage.
Jones County, which was the home team on the scoreboard by virtue of holding the higher seed in the matchup as MACJC South Division champion, responded in the bottom half when Chris Morgan led off with a solo homer to right field.
Trent Giambrone started a 5 for 5 performance for the Bobcats in the second with a RBI single that put the contest in a deadlock at 2-2.
Riley Alef continued his phenomenal campaign behind the plate for the tigers in the third when he picked off Chase Hensley at first base. The New Albany product also paced Northeast with a pair of hits.
Jordan Stark gave Jones County its initial lead of the game on a RBI single in the fifth. Hensley followed with a sacrifice fly that plated Giambrone while Alex Shermer capped the frame with a RBI single to give the Bobcats a 5-2 advantage.
Jones County (41-8) put the contest out of reach for the Tigers, who are receiving votes in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) poll, by scoring seven runs with two outs in the sixth. Giambrone began the decisive inning with a towering home run over the left field wall.
A walk, error and single by Stark brought another man in to score for the Bobcats before back-to-back doubles by Josh Pankratz and Shermer put Jones County ahead 12-2.
Easton Hall cut Northeast's deficit to 12-4 one frame later on a single up the middle that plated Drew Wray and Heath Wood. Wray walked two batters earlier while Wood doubled down the right field line for the 99th base hit of his career as a Tiger.
The run scored also served as the 100th in a Northeast uniform for Wood, a Kossuth High School graduate who was named to the MACJC All-State team as a freshman.
But the Bobcats wrapped up the game early due to the run-rule in the eighth when Morgan's walkoff single brought home Pankratz.
Jones County connected for 19 hits against six Tiger pitchers. David Gibson (5-3) took the loss and allowed only three earned runs with two strikeouts in five innings of work.
Westin Stringer (11-2) did not concede another run after Turner's blast in the first to earn the win. He walked six and struck out six while giving up a pair of hits.
"Crooked numbers have killed us all year long," said Northeast head coach Kent Farris. "If you can keep teams to single run innings then you can survive. But that seven spot really hurt us.
"I know our guys are going to respond and they're going to give us a great effort. I'm looking forward to it."