Fulton, Miss. - Heath Wood and the Northeast Mississippi Community College baseball team had a flare for the dramatic on Thursday night against their archrivals.
Wood scored the go-ahead run with a double in the top of the tenth inning for the Tigers in a 7-4 victory over Itawamba Community College on a clear and cool evening at Roy Cresap Field.
David Gibson, Wood's fellow Kossuth High School alumnus, and Evan Hickman then combined to toss a two-hitter to help Northeast down the Indians 2-1 in the nightcap and complete a crucial Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) North Division road sweep.
Itawamba, though, looked to be in good position to take the first game of the series with a 4-3 advantage entering the ninth and final frame of regulation.
Wood started the incredible comeback with a leadoff opposite field single to right field. He then took second base on a wild pitch and advanced to third on an errant throw by the catcher.
Riley Alef put a slow rolling ground ball in play with two outs that could have ended the contest, but a throwing error by third baseman Ethan Gill allowed Alef to reach safely and Wood to score to give the Tigers new life.
New Northeast pitcher Townsend Myers made the 4-4 tie stand by sitting the Indians down in order during the bottom half to force extra innings.
The Tigers grabbed their initial lead of the matchup in the tenth. Scott Pala legged out an infield single for his third hit of the day and Jordan Mongtomery walked on four pitches to put two on base with only one out.
Wood then greeted TJ Watson with a double into the left-centerfield gap on his second pitch out of the bullpen. Pala scored easily and Montgomery slid into home plate to give Northeast a 6-4 lead.
"I don't know what to say," Wood said. "It was really big. I'm just glad I got in that situation to help my team out."
Easton Hall added a huge insurance run moments later when he pulled a single to right field that brought Wood home to make the score 7-4 in favor of the Tigers.
Myers (1-0) made the lead stand by quickly retiring Itawamba in the bottom half with three straight outs on only 10 pitches. The right-hander from Hernando earned his inaugural collegiate win with two strikeouts in two innings.
"I knew I had to come in and just shut them down," said Myers. "That's what I did and it worked out for us. I was definitely amped up."
Run scoring singles by Bryce Williams and Austin Welch put the Indians (16-16, 5-9) ahead 3-0 after four complete, but Northeast's come-from-behind effort began one frame later.
Hall grounded out to the shortstop to plate Montgomery, a product of DeSoto Central High School. Trent Turner followed him with a two-out RBI hit that scored Wood and cut the Tigers' deficit to 3-2.
Northeast (18-14, 11-5) put the matchup in a 3-3 deadlock in the seventh when Montgomery raced home from second base on Hall's opposite field single.
Gill's triple past a diving Wood in left field temporarily put Itawamba back in front 4-3 in the bottom half before the Tigers successfully finished their late game rally.
Ben Aldridge (3-4) took the loss for the Indians with three earned runs and four hits conceded in 3.1 frames of relief work.
"The kids just stayed in there and kept (Itawamba's) innings to single digits," said Northeast head coach Kent Farris. "That one bad inning had been hurting us the past couple of ballgames. We had some huge at bats as well."
Drew Wray took the 41st hit by pitch of the season for Northeast in the second frame of the final contest of the night. That number is good for 18th in the nation and fifth in the league.
Wray, a New Albany native, then rounded the bags on Montgomery's bloop single that landed squarely between a sprinting right fielder, first baseman and second baseman to give the Tigers an early 1-0 advantage.
Northeast received a bit of luck during the fifth when Turner's routine ground ball that could have turned into a double play took a favorable hop off the infield lip where the grass meets the dirt and bounced over the head of the shortstop.
Wood hustled from second base to home plate on the play to score what turned out to be the decisive run and extend the Tigers' lead to 2-0.
Gibson (4-1) was phenomenal for the third outing in a row against conference competition. He scattered five walks and two hits, but struck out a career-high nine batters in 5.1 innings to claim the victory.
The 6-4, 213 pound right-hander worked out of two bases loaded jams, including in the first when Tanner Poole led off with a single and a pair of batters took free passes. But Gibson sat down three hitters on strikes to escape without any harm.
Hickman took the mound in the sixth and eased his way around another Itawamba threat. Two walks and a hit batsman put three on base with two outs, but the Northeast closer got Drew Wheeler to ground into a fielder's choice to end the frame.
The Indians did make things interesting in the bottom of the seventh when Gill scored on a throwing error to make it 2-1 and put the tying run at third base, just 90 feet away from touching home.
However, Hickman got Gable Butler to strike out on three pitches to wrap up the twinbill and secure his seventh save of the season.
Itawamba stranded 12 runners on base during the last game, nine of them in scoring position. Tucker Akin (3-1) lasted only two innings and was the loser for the Indians.
The Tigers outhit Itawamba 18-9 in the doubleheader. New Albany's Hall topped the offensive output with four base knocks while Wood had three, two of them for extra bases.
With the pair of triumphs in Fulton, Northeast swept the yearly four-game series from rival Itawamba and stayed just one contest behind East Mississippi Community College for first place in the MACJC North Division.
The Tigers step out of league play on Saturday, April 12 to face Pearl River Community College. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. on the campus of Clinton High School.