Baseball sweeps East Central

Daniel Miles smacks a solo homerun against East Central Apr. 18.

PERKINSTON---An MACJC South Division sweep couldn’t have come at a bigger time for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

Wednesday’s 7-0, 5-3 handling of East Central keeps the Bulldogs (22-16, 10-10) alive for a spot in the playoffs with four games left in the regular season.

The game one shutout featured another dominant performance by freshman pitcher Jarred Gates (7-3), who tossed a three hitter including 13 strikeouts. At the plate, Ben Slaton and Daniel Miles opened the bottom of the first with back-to-back homeruns. It was Slaton’s 11th blast of the season while Miles had two hits and 3 RBI. Nick Boggs also had two hits to help pace the Bulldog offensive attack.

In the 5-3 nightcap, Dieter Hamilton and Michael Gilbert both homered while the rest of the Bulldog offense took advantage of four Warrior errors. Tyler Bray (6-4) struck out seven and got the win while Daniel Wineski notched his fourth save of 2012.

Gulf Coast travels to Southwest for another key MACJC South Division doubleheader Saturday with game times at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.