March 2, 2009

TRIO OF TIGER PITCHERS FREEZE JOHN C. WOOD

BOONEVILLE, Miss. – Mother Nature made sure both teams were cold and a trio of Northeast Mississippi Community College pitchers iced John C. Wood Community College’s (Ill.) bats as the Tigers ended February with a 9-1 no-hitter on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Northeast (6-1) used three pitchers in securing the no-hitter against the Trailblazers. Jake Mills (Abbeville), Nick Mentel (Mandevill, La.) and Lee Paine (Oxford) each had a hand in tossing Northeast’s first no-hitter of the season. Mills opened the game with six strong innings before giving way to fireballer Mentel for a pair of frames. Paine came on in the ninth to secure the win and no-hitter for the Tigers.

Both teams decided on playing one nine-inning affair because of the inclement weather instead of the pair of seven-inning games normally associated with community college baseball.

National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) pre-season All-American catcher Phillip Chapman (Clinton) hit a home run against the Trailblazers along with Mills who also went yard on the evening for Northeast.

Freshman Ty Shirley (Columbus) and Seth Kennedy (Iuka) combined for three hits apiece for Northeast, while freshmen Brandon Farley (Cookeville, Tenn.), Neal Tice (Wheeler) and Tyler White (Olive Branch) all had doubles on the day.

Due to the inclement weather forecast for the Booneville area over the weekend, Northeast Mississippi Community College Head Baseball Coach Kent Farris had to scratch Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College from the line-up and shuffle the Tigers match-up with John C. Wood Community College (Ill.).

Farris said on Friday, “I am going to talk to the umpires at 9 a.m. Saturday and see if we can get them to agree to our shuffled schedule and just play John C. Wood at 1 p.m. because of Gulf Coast not being able to make the trip.”

After getting the go-ahead call, Farris and the Tigers were able to hit the diamond where they had no problems knocking the ball around. The Tigers swung the bat well enough to score nine runs and improve its record to 6-1 on the year versus the Trail Blazers of Illinois.

Northeast will look to add to its win column when they travel to Decatur, Ala. on Tuesday, March 3 to face John C. Calhoun in a double-header with the first-pitch set for 1 p.m.

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