No. 4 Gulf Coast explodes for 30 runs in sweep

No. 4 Mississippi Gulf Coast was all gas and just enough brakes Saturday, unleashing an unstoppable offensive attack in a sweep of Northwest Mississippi at Senatobia.

Kristian Jones (Fr., Southaven/DeSoto Central) went 5-for-5 with a home run, a double and four RBI in a 14-10 win in the opener, and K.K. Agner (Fr., Horn Lake/Magnolia Heights) went 5-for-5 with two doubles and four RBI in a 16-7 victory in six innings in the second.

"Every time we came in, we said, 'Let's go. Let's keep going,'" Gulf Coast coach Kenneth Long said. "Our players were saying that to each other, and they never doubted what we were doing."

A'Mya Stevens (So., Laurel/Northeast Jones) all but silenced the Rangers' bats to pick up the win in both games, throwing eight total innings and allowing two runs.

Gulf Coast has won its first six MACCC games to improve to 10-4. Northwest is 5-5, 2-4 MACCC.

Jones homered in the first inning, singled in the second, singled in runs in the third and fifth, and doubled in a run in three-run seventh which gave the Bulldogs the four-run lead.

"I think if she had batted eight times, she would have gone 8-for-8," Long said. "She was just in a zone, and she was hitting the ball hard. It was coming off her bat. She hit one ball their kid almost got out of the way of it. It was smoked. She's such a humble kid, and you're really proud when a player has that kind of a day."

Gulf Coast rallied from a 4-1 deficit with six runs in the second. The Bulldogs trailed 9-8 in the fifth when Jones tied it up with one of her singles. Briana Shores (So., Richland/Richland) doubled in two runs for an 11-9 lead.

Stevens entered with one out in the fourth after the Bulldogs fell behind 9-8 and held down the fort the rest of the way. She allowed two hits and a run. 

She came in with two outs in the second game and Gulf Coast down 6-5 and would scatter five hits to improve to 3-2 on the season.

"She got everything stabilized in the first game, then came in and did the same thing in the second one," Long said. "She was phenomenal." 

Agner had an RBI single in the first, a double in the third, a single in the fourth, an RBI single in the fifth and an RBI double in the sixth.

"Every ball K.K. hit was hit down that third-base line, and a couple of them the third baseman never even moved. Every ball she hit was hit hard. We need that out of her, and she did the job today."

Alexis Laughlin (So., Hurley/East Central) went 3-for-5 in both games, and Shores had three doubles in the first game. Rakeya Travis (So., Poplarville/Poplarville) went 3-for-3 in Game 2 with a home run, two doubles and five RBI in the second, and Sarah Brannan (So., Enterprise/Enterprise) had three hits and three RBI.

Gulf Coast has a non-conference doubleheader against Pensacola State on Monday starting at 2 p.m. The Bulldogs host Pearl River on Wednesday.

For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.