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MCC rally spoiled in extras

Kaleb Hanks and Enmanuel Lopez

WENTWORTH, N.C. — A five-run eighth inning powered the Marshalltown Community College baseball team to a late rally, but the Tigers fell 10-9 in extra innings to Rockingham Community College on Wednesday afternoon. The Tigers drop to 5-4 on the year.

Sophomore Enmanuel Lopez went 3-for-6 at the plate with a pair of RBIs, including the game-tying RBI in the top of the ninth inning. Kaleb Hanks went 3-for-4 and reached base four times while scoring three runs. As a team, the Tigers outhit Rockingham 14-9 but had just one extra-base knock.

Originally scheduled for a doubleheader with the Eagles, Wednesday’s game was switched to a single nine-inning contest due to weather. Cole Baker got the start on the mound and both team’s traded scoreless innings in the first two frames. MCC’s first hit came from the bat of Carter Eldridge in the third. After Hanks drew a hit by pitch, Jalen Horton and John Magnuson delivered back-to-back RBI-singles for a 2-0 Tiger lead in the third.

The Eagles responded with eight runs in the bottom half of the inning, forcing MCC to go to its bullpen. JJ Stephens took over on the mound with one out in the third, and after allowing two hits, kept the Eagles off the board for the next five innings. Stephens retired 12 straight batters at one point and allowed just one baserunner on an error after the third inning.

Despite Stephens’ performance, the Tiger offense stranded eight runners between the fourth and seventh innings.

Trailing 8-2 entering the eighth, the bats woke up for the Tigers as Hanks got the rally going with a one out single. Lopez and Luis Duran delivered RBI-singles while Tony Salato and Joel Rosauer both earned bases-loaded walks. A sacrifice fly from Jose Mieses scored Duran to bring MCC within one.

After a scoreless eighth from Stephens, Hanks sparked the offense once again with a leadoff single to start the ninth. The sophomore came around to score on Lopez’s single to center, tying the game at nine. The Tigers used a pair of relievers — Diogen Ceballos and Juan Carlos Gonzalez — to toss a scoreless ninth to force extra innings.

The Tigers failed to produce a baserunner in the top of the 10th, allowing the Eagles a chance to ruin the Tiger rally. With two outs and a runner on second, Rockingham delivered a walk-off hit to hand MCC its third loss in the final at-bat of the season.

Despite the loss, the Tigers continued to thrive in late innings and have now outscored their opponent 38-10 in the fifth inning or later this season.

Magnuson, Duran, and Eldridge collected two hits each in the loss for the Tigers while Mieses drove in a pair of runs.

The Tigers travel to Guilford Technical Community College for a four-game series on Saturday and Sunday in Jamestown, N.C.

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