ICC bats cold, Earnest shines in 2-1 loss to No. 9 Pearl River

ICC bats cold, Earnest shines in 2-1 loss to No. 9 Pearl River
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

POPLARVILLE, MS – The Itawamba Community College baseball team left their offense in Fulton as they failed to provide any run support to go along with a great outing by sophomore Dylan Earnest in the Indians' 2-1 loss to the No. 9 Pearl River Community College Bobcats in the opening game of the best-of-three series.

The Bobcats took a 1-0 series lead on a walk-off single by Darien Brown in the bottom of the tenth.

"He was sitting on fast ball with a 3-2 count and was able to come up with the hit in a big time situation," said ICC head coach Rick Collier. "We had our chances throughout the whole game and just couldn't get it don't and that's unfortunate because you couldn't ask for a better game than what Earnest gave us today."

For the second-straight start, Earnest proved why he was a former Louisville Slugger All-American while at Hamilton High School, only allowing one run on six hits through nine innings of work only to have very little offense to back up his efforts as the Indians managed four hits and two more players reach via a walk in the team's 11th one-run loss of the season.

"I don't know what it is, but this has been the case for us all season," Collier said. "Our pitchers go out and give us every chance you can ask for to win ballgames, but we can't manage to give them any run support."

Of Earnest's seven strike outs, two of them came against on of the nation's top hitters and most sought after JUCO player in KJ Wilkerson, who is amongst Top 5 in home runs and RBI. The PRCC designated hitter finished the day going 0-4 against the Southeastern Louisiana signee.

The Bobcats took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third when Ole Miss signee Braxton Lee scored on a single by Forrest Dungan. The Indians answered in the top half of the fourth when Austin Welch (Hamilton) beat the throw home on a sacrifice fly by Arkansas Little Rock commitment Cody Shrewsbury (Tupelo).

ICC left runners in scoring position in the first, fourth and fifth innings.

Southern Miss signee Christian Talley kept the Indian batters handcuffed throughout the day allowing one run on four hits and two walks while striking out 11 in nine innings of work allowing Ryan Deemes to come in to get the win after a three up, three down tenth inning.

"This was a heck of a ballgame," said Collier, who will have to wait until Game 2 on Sunday to go for career win 400. "A Southern Miss guy and a Southeastern Louisiana guy getting after each other all day long that made for a fun baseball game, but unfortunately not a win for the Indians at the end of the day."

Welch finished the day with a pair of singles with Kentucky signee Tyler Tipton (Shelbyville, KY) adding a single and stolen base in his first game back after missing over a month of play due to an ankle injury. Redshirt freshman Drew Wheeler (Mooreville) added the Indians only other hit of the day on single in the sixth.

The Indians will try to dodge elimination when they square off against the Bobcats at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, which wouldn't be anything new in this classic duel between the two storied programs.

"Last time they came to our place in a best-of-three series they took game one, but we were able to 10-run rule them in Game 2 and then win on a walk-off grand slam in Game 3," Collier told the players on the bus ride back to the hotel. "This thing isn't over we still have a heartbeat."

ICC will go with 2012 first-team All-American and Mississippi State signee Ben Hudspeth (Tupelo) on the mound on Sunday while Pearl River's Game 2 starter will be a game-time decision.

You can listen to the game live on WAFM 95.7 FM (Amory) and online at www.fm95radio.com or watch the game live at www.ihigh.com/iccathletics starting at 1:40 p.m. with the Davis Ford Pre-Game Show.

If needed, final game of the best-of-three series will start after a brief intermission after the conclusion of Game 2 and will be available on the listings above.