Hall delivers in must-win game for split

PERKINSTON — The old baseball adage says momentum is the next game's starting pitcher, and fortunately for Mississippi Gulf Coast, momentum was wearing No. 10 for the Bulldogs. 

Riley Hall threw a four-hitter to beat Meridian 5-3 and earn a split Wednesday at Ken "Curly" Farris Field. It was greatly needed after a 9-0 loss in the opener.

"We had to have that game," Gulf Coast coach Zach Allen said. "Our backs are against the wall at this point, and we needed him to go out there and throw strikes and compete. He went up there and did that, which gave us a chance to win."

It was a must-win game for the Bulldogs (26-20, 10-14 MACCC), who stayed a game ahead of Meridian (22-21, 9-15) in the standings. Gulf Coast is in 11^th, a game behind Southwest Mississippi and Northwest Mississippi, which play each other next. The top 10 teams in the MACCC advance to the postseason.

Hall, a freshman righty from Mobile, Ala., struck out seven with two walks. All three runs he gave up came in the second, putting the Bulldogs behind 3-2. Naji Cain (So., Columbia/Columbia) scored with a great slide after a two-out error in the bottom of the inning to tie it up.

Anthony Tanner (Fr., Hurley/East Central) singled in the go-ahead run with two outs in the fourth, and Asher Henley (So., Vancleave/Vancleave) plated an insurance run with a pinch-hit, two-out double off the wall in the sixth.

"It's one of those deals where you got some guys on and just couldn't get the big hit, and then you scraped enough around to get ahead 4-3, and then Ashton Henley comes off the bench and slaps that big double, gives a little insurance run so you can breathe a little bit in that last inning. They kept us off balance today. Even that first game, we had chances; we just couldn't get the big hit all day. It's kind of been the story of the season there."

Hall didn't even need the extra run, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to close things out.

Erimel Rosado (So., Dorado, Puerto Rico/Centennial) had a two-run single in the first.

Gulf Coast managed only three hits in the opener, with Garrett Gardner (Fr., Madison/Madison-Ridgeland Academy) picking up two. Bulldog pitchers walked 12.

The Bulldogs hit the road Saturday with a doubleheader at East Mississippi. First pitch in Scooba is set for 2 p.m., and the games will be streamed at https://emcclive.com/watch-live/.

"We've just got to take one game at a time," Allen said. "We've got to win out, but you can't look that far in advance, you've got to look one game at a time, one inning at a time, one pitch at a time. That's our message, and that's what they bought into that last game."

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