1999

ECCC Diamond Warriors Fall in State Tourney; Prepare for Region 23 Hopes tor a second-straigh t state title quickly faded mto O\er the past few weeks." the night late Saturda•• for the Clark said . East Central C~mmunitv Regarding Saturday night's Diamond Warriors who .fell 7-3 game with Gulf Coast, Clark to host Gulf Coast and we:re described the atmosphere as eliminated from further acuon bemg "electric," and added, in the MAQC State Baseball we had a huge crowd and a Tournament held en the great turnout of East Cen tral Perkinston campus. East People. (Allen) Buckley Central had sustamed a 13-4 (freshman from Brandon) threw setback earlier in the day to grea_t for about five innings but eventual tournament winner got mto trouble and had to be Itawamba. The Diamond p~lled. B~t it was g reat seeing Warriors had begun the double- him p1tch well again, elimmation tourney en a especially since he's just a wiruung note by outscoring freshm~." . nationally ranked Northwest Includmg thts year's th ird- 8-6 en Friday afternoon to place finish, the diamond advance to the winner's Warriors have now bracket. participated in the state . Altho_ugh obviously tournament ~-ee consecutive dlSappomted with not being years. In addition to winning able to successfully defend the the 1998 title, East Central College's firs t state baseball placed second in 1997. htle, head coach Jamie Clark Clark and his Diamond said the Diamond Warriors Warriors begin Region 23 will now focus efforts en this Tournament action at 1 p.m. weekend's Region 23 Thursday against Delgado. Tournament scheduled at East Central is the number- Meridian Community College. three seed and Delgado i s East Central, 26-25 overall is seeded fourth. Other making its fourth stratght particip~ts are Meridian appearance in the annual Communtty College (no. 1 seed), competition, which features Gulf Coast (No. 2), Northeast the top six teams from (No. 5) and Delta (No. 6). Mississippi and Louisiana. Clark said sophomore hurler "We really played well in Jason Willis (9-4) Qf Neshoba the state tournament, and only C~tral will start on the mound made two errors in three games. agamst Delgado and Buckley Defensively, we played about s3-4) ~ets the nod in game two. as well as we could play. We Obv10usly we will use our swung the bat very well Friday bullpen as ~eeded t~ win each ~ against Northwest and game, which wlll be a Saturday against Itawamba. determining factor en who will l But in the Itawamba game, we start the remaining games." c The championship contest in " could not bunch out hits the double elimin t ' t l t th . a ton ourney oge er; mother words we did is set for 1 n"" <::11nrbv All \ not make hits when we had ECCC games will be broadcast c base runners. But then again, by WSSI-FM (98.3) in ' I!awamba played as hot as a Carthage, featuring veteran ftrecracker and have done so sports announcer Mike Goodwin.

CARTHAGINIAN NESHOBADEMO~C_RA __T _________ NEWTON RECORD MERIDIAN STAR _ .......,:______ CLARION-LEDGER ------------------