ELLISVILLE — The No. 14 Jones Bobcats opened their MACCC round robin with a 12-2 win over Holmes on Tuesday at The Bank. Later, they lost 14-7 to Itawamba in the evening game.
Jones moved to 16-6 on the season. The team has one more non-conference game at Nunez on Friday before opening conference play March 11 at East Central, according to school officials.
In the morning game, Jones quickly took control, scoring three runs in the first inning and three more in the third to lead 6-0. Chase Russell’s RBI-triple sparked the scoring, and Chesley Rhodes hit his first collegiate home run in the third. Holmes scored twice in the fourth on an RBI-single from Chase Peeples and a wild pitch, cutting the deficit to 6-2.
Kelan Guidry’s first of two triples scored Gage Reeves in the fifth, and Talan Theriot and Russell added RBI-singles to extend the lead to 9-2. Guidry’s sacrifice fly in the sixth made it 10-2, and Theriot’s fielder’s choice and Russell’s single ended the game in six innings. Guidry finished 3-for-3 with two triples, a double, a sacrifice fly, and two RBIs. Reeves and Russell each had three hits. Brayson Graham earned the win, allowing two runs over 4.1 innings with five strikeouts and four walks. Caden Freeman earned his second save, entering with the tying run on deck.
Later that day, Jones led 5-1 after three innings against Itawamba, thanks to a three-run homer from Sanders Ainsworth. However, Itawamba responded with 13 unanswered runs to secure the victory. The Warriors scored seven runs in the fifth inning on three hits and two Bobcat errors to go up 9-5. Brady Thompson’s three-run homer in the seventh extended Itawamba’s lead to 14-5. Jones scored twice in the final inning, but it was not enough. Dylan Champagne went 2-for-4 for Jones, while Russell and Ainsworth each recorded three RBIs. Drew Lambert took the loss, giving up three earned runs over 4.1 innings with six strikeouts and three walks, according to team officials.
