By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
While it will ultimately come down to how the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawks fare this week as to whether or not they will win the Alabama Community College Conference south division, it was their performance Sunday against Enterprise that helped decide how difficult their job will be.
JDCC took two big steps towards the south crown Sunday when it swept the visiting Boll Weevil with a 7-1 triumph in game one and a come-from-behind 5-3 victory in game two.
The sweep keeps the Warhawks (19-7 in the ACCC and 39-12 overall) a game ahead of Alabama Southern, which swept its doubleheader against Wallace State-Dothan Sunday, headed into the final week of the regular season. JDCC and Alabama Southern close out the season with back-to-back doubleheaders with a 1 p.m. pair in Brewton Thursday and another
See JDCC Page 8A
doubleheader Saturday at Monroeville.
Sunday's sweep against Enterprise means the Warhawks need to split this week's four-game set to win the division.
"If we had lost one of these games to Enterprise, we would have to beat Alabama Southern three of the four games to win the division. Now we only need a split. That's a big difference having to win only two instead of three," JDCC coach Jim Morrill said.
The Warhawks were able to able to dodge several bullets in their first game win. Enterprise managed 10 hits against JDCC pitcher Jason Moore, but managed just one run.
A three-run uprising by the Warhawks in the bottom of the first inning turned out to be all JDCC and Moore, who struck out six, needed.
R.J. Thompson walked, stole second, went to third on a throwing error and scored on a single by Brett Burkett. After Chris Good added to the rally with a single, both Kyle McPherson and Rusty Harris produced RBI singles that extended JDCC's lead to 3-0.
That lead grew to 4-0 the next inning when Logan Hundley singled and scored when Thompson's sacrifice was misplayed for an error.
After the Boll Weevil used three third inning singles to plate their only run and cut the gap to 4-1, McPherson belted a solo homer in the bottom half of the inning that made it 5-1.
Good drove in the Warhawks final two runs with an RBI groundout that scored Thomspon in the fourth inning and an RBI double in the sixth that got Brett Burkett home.
In game two, JDCC gave starting pitcher Robert Brown a 2-0 lead with single runs in each of the first two innings.
Thompson reached on an error, stole second, went to third on a sacrifice by Micah Leopard and scored on a single by Good in the first inning. Rusty Harris walked and was driven in by a double by Charles Conklin in the second frame.
Enterprise cut that lead in half against Brown with a run in the third inning and then took a 3-2 lead on a two-run double by Thomas Erwin in the fourth inning.
A break helped JDCC tie and take the lead in the fifth inning. A one-out error allowed Thompson to reach safely. That eventually set up an RBI double by Burkett and an RBI single by Good that put the Warhawks up 4-3.
JDCC got an insurance run from an unlikely source in the sixth inning when Rieko Moyer dumped an RBI single into leftfield. It was the first collegiate hit for Moyer, who normally spends his playing time on the mound.
Brown scattered seven hits over five and one-third innings for the win before Carl Gibbs retired the final five Boll Weevil for the save.
"Both Jason in game one and Robert two in game two didn't have their best stuff, but they did a good job of battling. We got some timely hits on the day, especially Kyle and Chris in game one and then Brett and Chris in game two," Morrill said. "I wasn't worried about us looking past Enterprise and ahead to Alabama Southern. This has been a very focused group all season."
Game one
Enterprise 001 000 0 – 1 10 2
JDCC 311 101 X – 7 9 1
Game two
Enterprise 001 200 0 – 3 7 2
JDCC 110 021 X – 5 7 0