Bulldogs sweep Trojans

Mississippi Gulf Coast got a road MACCC baseball sweep Friday, helping to wipe away the Bulldogs' bad taste in their mouths dropping two midweek games.

Gulf Coast beat Mississippi Delta 11-4 and 4-1 in Moorhead to surpass its win total from last season. Jordan Davis hit a three-run homer to ignite the first-game offense, and James Vines threw a one-hitter in the second.

"That's a big bounce back," Bulldogs coach Zach Allen said. "You go up for a long road trip and get two wins, which is always good."

They are 27-13 overall, 9-5 in the conference and travel to No. 8 Jones on Wednesday. Gulf Coast is fifth in the league at the halfway point of the MACCC schedule.

Vines (Fr, Clinton, La./Silliman Institute) struck out six and improved to 4-1 despite not having his best stuff.

"He was in some trouble throughout the day, but he pounded the zone when he needed to," Allen said. "He got some big-time outs, and we made some big-time plays behind him. There were two bases-loaded situations, and we got two big catches in the outfield."

It was 1-1 headed to the last inning before the Bulldogs put a three-spot on the board without hitting a ball out of the infield. After two walks to start the inning, Jacob Palazzo (So, Biloxi/Gulfport) sacrifice bunted, and Delta (5-22, 2-12) threw it away. That allowed a run to score.

Naji Cain (Fr, Columbia/Columbia) also got a bunch down on a suicide squeeze, and Palazzo scored all the way from second following Dom Jackson (So, Gulf Breeze, Fla./Gulf Breeze) for a 4-1 lead.

"We were playing with our personnel, and the wind was blowing in at 27 miles an hour all day long," Allen said. "We hit some balls hard, but they wouldn't go anywhere. We just put pressure on them, and that's what we had to do to get a win."

Jackson was the only Bulldog with two hits.

Davis (Fr, Neshoba/Neshoba Central) hit a three-run shot through that wind to give Gulf Coast a 3-1 lead in the third inning of the first game.

"His first at-bat wasn't great," Allen said. "We talked about his approach and what he was looking for. We said if you get your pitch, you should get your swing off. He got that ball through the wind."

Davis also doubled, and Brandon Coakley (Fr, Covington, La./Covington) had three hits with a double. Kaden Irving (So, Gautier/Gautier) also had three RBI.

Eli Waters (So, Petal/Petal), the reigning MACCC Pitcher of the Week, allowed one unearned run and two hits in six innings to improve to 4-3. He struck out seven. Walker Seaman (Fr, Grand Bay, Ala./Mobile Christian) pitched 2.2 innings of one-hit ball to close out the win. 

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