GOODMAN, Miss. — The No. 3 Pearl River baseball team hit the road Tuesday evening to face a pair of MACCC foes in non-conference matchups and took down Itawamba 6-1 and Holmes 8-2.
"I thought we did an excellent job today of being locked in during our first at-bat," head coach Michael Avalon said. "We scored in the first inning of each game and set the tone early. Our pitchers did an excellent job of pitching ahead of the count throughout the day."
PEARL RIVER 6, ITAWAMBA 1.
Pearl River (12-3 overall) set the tone early, scoring a run three batters into the afternoon. Creek Robertson (Oxford; Madison Central) singled and promptly swiped second base, and Hollis Porter (Hurley; East Central) ripped a single up the middle to bring him home, 1-0.
Eli Waters (Petal) delivered in his second start of the year, racking up two strikeouts and a ground out to end the first inning.
PRCC added two more in the second as Bryce Fowler (Madison; Madison Central) put a ball in play, resulting in a run-scoring error, and Robertson sent a sacrifice fly into right field, 3-0. An error and a walk almost came back to bite the Wildcats in the bottom half of the second as a single scored an Itawamba (4-6) run. Waters recovered nicely, though, getting a big punchout to end the inning.
The Wildcats tacked on two more in the fourth. Jonah Katsaboulas (Brandon) singled to begin the inning and moved to third on a pair of passed balls. Fowler brought him home, finishing up an eight-pitch at-bat with a single. Fowler eventually scored on an error by the Bulldogs, 5-1.
Waters worked around a two-out double in the bottom of the fourth to record a strikeout to send PRCC right back to work at the plate. The Wildcats rewarded his stellar pitching with another insurance run. JP Robertson (Madison; Germantown) and Alex Wade (Decatur, Ala.; Madison Academy) picked up back-to-back singles to allow JP Robertson to advance to third base. Katsaboulas took two straight balls before sending a fly ball into right field for a sacrifice fly, 6-1.
Waters continued his solid performance in the fifth, giving up a leadoff single before retiring the next three batters to walk to the plate. Waters gave way to Reed McCrillis (Madison; Madison Central) in the bottom of the sixth, and he delivered a solid relief appearance to keep the Indians off the scoresheet.
PRCC threatened again in the the top of the seven but couldn't get any runs across the plate. McCrillis returned to work in the bottom of the seventh, forcing a quick flyout and striking out the next batters to close out the contest, 6-1.
Wade led the way at the plate, finishing 3-for-4 with a run scored. Katsaboulas was 2-for-2 with an RBI and two runs scored. Porter went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Fowler finished 1-for-4 and drove in two runs.
Waters earned the win, throwing five innings of one-run baseball. He allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out five batters. His one run was unearned.
"Waters was what we needed during the early going," Avalon said. "He gave us a quality start and pitched really well."
McCrillis picked up the save as he pitched the final two innings and allowed just one hit. He struck out four ICC batters.
PEARL RIVER 8, HOLMES 2.
Pearl River set the tone early in game two against Holmes (4-5), plating five runs in the top of the first inning. The first two batters of the game reached base, and Porter made the Bulldogs pay by blasting his seventh home run in the first 15 games of the season, 3-1. Marshall Phillips (Hattiesburg; Sumrall) ripped a double and moved to third on a JP Robertson single. Keegan Giger (Petal) grounded out to the right side of the infield to bring in Phillips. Katsaboulas joined in on the first-inning barrage, picking up an RBI double, 5-0.
The Bulldogs had some fight in them in the bottom half of the first, battling back to cut the deficit to 5-2. The first batter of the bottom of the second inning struck out, but two straight walks to force a Wildcat pitching change. AJ Hansen (Mobile, Ala.; McGill-Toolen) received the call, and he delivered as he went on to throw 4 1/3 shutout innings while striking out seven batters.
Pearl River tacked on two runs in the fourth to push ahead 7-2. Creek Robertson started the inning with a bang by sending a ball into right field for a leadoff triple. Phillips followed with a walk, and Creek Robertson eventually scored on an infield single by JP Robertson. Giger plated the inning's second run by sending a sacrifice fly into right field.
Hansen finally gave way to reliever Cameron Fennell (Long Beach) in the bottom of the sixth inning. The 6-foot-6 right-hander walked the first batter he faced but induced a flyout by the next.
The Wildcat offense added another run for good measure in the top of the seventh. Katsaboulas reached on an error and scored when Fowler drove a line drive into left field 8-2. Carson Fair (Southaven) was called upon to pitch the home half of the seventh and struck out the first two batters before a ground out ended the game.
Fowler, Robertson, Katsaboulas and Parker Ryan (Madison; Jackson Academy) all went 2-for-4 at the plate. Giger went 1-for-3 but drove in two runs. Porter only tallied one hit, but it left the yard for three RBIs.
Konnor Graham (Hammond, La.) threw 1 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on four walks and two hits. He struck out one. Hansen was electric in relief as he kept the Bulldogs out of the hits, runs and walks column for 4 1/3 innings while striking out seven. Fennell just recorded one out and walked one batter. Fair struck out two of the three batters that he faced.
NEXT UP
Pearl River returns to Dub Herring Park on Friday to host No. 11 South Arkansas and No. 20 Parkland College. Game one will be played at 12 p.m. and the nightcap will begin at 6 p.m. South Arkansas and Parkland will play at 3 p.m.
TICKETS
Tickets are on sale now at PRCCAthletics.com/Tickets. General admission tickets are $8 per game. Season passes can be purchased for $75 for softball or a softball/baseball season pass can be purchased for $100.
HOW TO WATCH
The Wildcats will once again livestream all games for free at PRCCMedia.com/gold. Fans who have Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV devices can also watch the Wildcat broadcasts by downloading the "Pearl River CC" channel from their app stores.
Games can also be heard at WRJW 1320-AM, 106.9 FM and WRJWRadio.com.
For the latest on Pearl River Community College athletics, follow us on X (@PRCCAthletics) and Facebook (PRCCAthletics).