Box Score
JACKSON – A career-high six RBIs from \#Jason Riggins\# led the Millsaps College baseball team in a 19-8 run-rule victory over the No. 10 ranked Mississippi College Choctaws on Tuesday evening for its first win in the Cowboy Maloney Series.
The Choctaws jumped out to an early 2-0 on a home run by Bo Bell off starting pitcher \#Carson Goldsmith\# but the Majors responded in the bottom half of the inning with four runs to take a 4-2 lead.
After \#Jeremy Aliff\# singled and \#Josh Ordeneaux\# was hit by a pitch, \#Will Hawkins\# stepped up to the plate and drove the ball well over the fence in right-center to get the scoring started for the Majors.
Riggins added his first RBI of the game on a single up the middle to give Millsaps a 4-2 lead after one complete inning.
MC answered right back tying the game 4-4 with two runs in the second on another two-run home run, this time by Jarrod Cannette.
In the bottom of the second, Hawkins delivered again hitting a two-run double, driving home his fourth and fifth RBIs of the game to put the Majors back in front 6-4.
Goldsmith allowed the first two batters to reach in the third but \#John Marshall Pemberton\# entered the game and promptly retired the side to get out of the jam unscathed.
The Majors went to work in the bottom half of the third when \#Jake Mills\# led the inning being hit by a pitch.
Continuing to hit the ball hard, Riggins followed with a two-run blast before three straight singles scored two more runs for a 10-4 Millsaps advantage.
Pemberton went on to retire the side in order the next two innings and the Majors built on their lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth.
\#Tyler Berry\#, last week's SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week, opened the inning with his conference-leading ninth home run of the season and \#Drew Leonard\# brought home \#Trey Rountree\# with an RBI double to give the Majors a 12-4 lead.
In Millsaps' half of the fifth, Aliff singled and Ordeneaux doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs.
Hawkins proceeded to hit a ground ball to the second baseman, who tried to throw Aliff out at the plate but instead got him into a run-down involving all three base runners, eventually resulting in all runners reaching base safely.
The next two batters struck out, but Mills followed with a hit-by-pitch bringing home Aliff before Riggins came through again with a bases-clearing triple.
With Riggins sliding into third, the throw came in and bounced past the third baseman allowing a winded Riggins to score the fifth run of the inning.
After the Choctaws got a lead-off double in the sixth, Brannon Walls hit a two-run home run off Pemberton to close the gap to 17-6.
Continuing to score in every inning, the Majors added two in the bottom of the sixth coming off an RBI infield single by \#Jules Roussel\# and a sacrifice fly from Berry for a comfortable 19-6 lead heading into the seventh.
MC rallied with two outs in the seventh but only scored two runs as \#Boomer Hudson\# came in and got the final out to close out the run-rule victory, 19-8 in favor of Millsaps.
After all was said and done, Aliff, Ordeneaux, Riggins and Leonard each recorded three hits on the night while Riggins drove home a career-high six runs and Hawkins contributed five RBIs.
Pemberton picked up the win throwing 4.2 innings giving up five hits and four runs –three earned– for his first win of the season and MC's starter Craig Mackay took the loss.
The victory ends a four-game losing streak for the Majors, who improve to 17-10 overall while the loss is just the fourth of the season for the Choctaws, who fall to 21-4 overall.
Millsaps will hit the road for a weekend series at LaGrange College beginning Friday at 5 p.m.
