BATON ROUGE, La. — The No. 5 Pearl River baseball team secured a sweep of the season series against Baton Rouge Monday afternoon, hitting the road and taking down the Bears 5-3.
"We had good at-bats early on and had opportunities to bust it open," head coach Michael Avalon said. "It's hard to win on the road, no matter who you play. We aren't seeing the improvements we need to see offensively. That's something we're going to work on. This is a really talented group, and we will fix it. I believe in the group we have and their talent."
Pearl River (6-1 overall) got on the scoreboard early against Baton Rouge (1-8) as a walk to Jaxon Milam (Phenix City, Ala.; Glenwood Academy) ended up costing the Bears a run when they made an error a few plays later, 1-0.
Right-hander Caleb Dyess (Carriere; Pearl River Central) took the mound for the second time this year in the bottom half of the inning and retired BRCC in order to send the Wildcats back to the plate.
Jackson Hood (Madison; Germantown) opened the second with a base hit and moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch by the Bears. PRCC's hero from Friday night, Jacob Keys (Brandon), stepped up again against Baton Rouge, ripping a double into the gap to bring Hood around the bases, 2-0.
Dyess needed just 11 pitches in his second inning of work to throw his second three up, three down inning of the afternoon, striking out a batter along the way.
A pair of runs scored for PRCC in the top half of the third frame. Two early walks to Topher Jones (Hernando) and Milam put a runner into scoring position for Caston Thompson (Jayess; Brookhaven), who smacked an RBI single into right field. Two pitches later, Jackson Hood (Madison; Germantown) grounded into a fielder's choice to bring Milam home, 4-0.
Baton Rouge walked back-to-back to open the bottom of the third, and it looked like it was about to do some damage. Dyess forced a ground ball into the hole between shortstop and third base, and Milam ranged far to his right to get it. He threw it to third base in time to get the fielder's choice out. The next batter beat a ball into the ground to Keegan Giger (Petal) at second base. He flipped to Milam for the first out, and the shortstop fired to Thompson to complete the double play.
The Bears got a run back in the fourth, turning a two-out walk into an RBI double, 4-1. Drew Harrison (Madison; Germantown) made his first pitching appearance of the year in the fifth inning. The Tulane transfer struck out the side and allowed just one run in his debut, 4-2.
Max Miller (Vancleave) took over for Harrison in the sixth inning. The left-hander gave up a leadoff home run but settled down to get out of the inning without any further damage. Miller was lights-out in the seventh and eighth, 4-3. He allowed one base runner in the seventh but punched out two. In the eighth, Miller induced a flyball to begin the inning and struck out the next two batters to send PRCC back to the plate.
Pearl River got a much-needed insurance run in the top of the ninth. Milam reached on a fielder's choice and advanced to second on a Thompson single. The next batter, Hood, sent a flyball into center field, allowing Milam to move up to third and score on some confusion on the throw to the infield, 5-3.
PRCC turned to its closer, Carson Fair (Southaven), in the bottom half of the ninth. Searching for three outs, the right-hander struck out the side to secure the win.
BY THE NUMBERS
Dyess threw a predetermined four innings to earn the win. He allowed one run on one hit and three walks. He struck out a pair. Harrison allowed one run on one hit and two walks in his inning of work. He struck out three.
Miller tossed three innings in relief, allowing one run on three hits. He tallied five strikeouts. Fair picked up his third save of the season with a three-strikeout ninth.
Thompson finished 3-for-4 with one RBI and one walk. Keys went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a double. Milam walked twice and scored three runs.
NEXT UP
Pearl River returns to Dub Herring Park Friday for a game against Gulf Coast State. The single nine-inning contest will get underway at 4 p.m.
TICKETS
Season and single-game tickets are on sale now at PRCCAthletics.com/Tickets. Season passes are $88 and single-game tickets are $8 if purchased in advance or $10 if purchased on the day of the game.
TUNE IN
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).