2000

ECCC feels it belongs

By Austtn Bishop I The Meridian Star MayS, 2000

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DECATUR- East Central Community College baseball coach Jamie Clark makes no apologies for his team being in the Region 23 Baseball Tournament with a 20-27 record.

"I can remember there were years when we were 29-15, 29-19, 30-18 and we didn't get in, so we won't apologize," he said. 'We have earned a spot.

'We feel like that there are some teams there that are probably better than us," Clark said. "We are going to be honest with the guys. These guys are 20-years-old, they know there are some teams over there that better years than us."

But Clark is quick to point out when the four-day tournament starts Thursday, what happened earlier in the season really doesn't matter.

"All we have got to do is play better than those other five teams for four days and that's it," he said. 'We feel like with our starting pitching we have a chance to compete with anybody we play. Our defense has been inconsistent, but as of the last few weeks it has played a lot better. "Offensively though, we have had problems most of the year," Clark said. "We are hitting .264 as a team and we only have 17 home runs. We really don't' know what is wrong, except for the fact that we just haven't hit."

East Central plays its first game in the six-team, double-elimination Region 23 event against Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College at 7 p.m

The tourney begins at 1 p.m. with Bossier {La.) Parish facing Northeast Mississippi, while Meridian Community College and Mississippi Delta Community College play at 4 p.m. All games are at Scaggs Field on the campus of Meridian Community College. "It would be an understatement to say this season hasn't really developed the way we thought it would," Clark said. "We only lost a handful of last year's team that was 17-7 (in league play) and co-champions of the South Division. But t they were key players.

'We had the makmgs of a really good season," he said. "Nobody out there works harder than we do, we JUSt haven't put it together. We have lost a lot of close games. We lost five conference games by one run and two more by two runs, so the conference record could have been a lot better." ECCC was 11-13 in South Divis1on play The Warriors beat out Southwest and Jones for the second spot out of the South in the Region tournament. Gulf Coast won the division t1tle and is the No 1 seed in the tournament.

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Ciark said his view on tournament play is s1mple. 'We are going to go after game one like it is the only game 1n the tournament," he said. "Whatever

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·------ pitchers we have to use, we will do it."

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He said that freshman right-hander Monte Migliacio of Plaquemine, La., will get Tv JouRNAL the start in the first game, while left-hander Jayeson McDonald is likely to start WINSTON COUN -the second game. SPIRIT OF MORTON___ _ NEWTON MESSENGER Austin Bishop is a staffwriterforThe Meridian Star. E-mail him at - --- abishop(Ciimeridiarn.iar.com.