CLEVELAND, Miss. — Lane Wallace threw eight scoreless innings and North Alabama held off a ninth inning rally by Mississippi College to down the Choctaws 3-2 in the second round of pool play at the Gulf South Conference Baseball Tournament.
UNA, now 34-18 overall, improved to 2-0 in pool play but will have to beat West Alabama on Monday at 1:30 to advance to the Championship Game.
North Alabama loaded the bases in the top of the first inning and Logan Carter drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk to score Davis Elliot for a 1-0 lead.
Carter then hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to make it 2-0.
The Lions loaded the bases again in the top of the seventh and Ben Cooley scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Drake Tucker.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Choctaws mounted a comeback/ Will Elliot got an infield single to lead off the inning and Hunter Sykes followed with another infield single. Elliot and Sykes advanced to second and third on a double steal and Hunter Wilson followed with a run-scoring single. MC scored a second run on a throwing error to close the gape to 3-2.
Channing Wall came on in relief for UNA and managed to stop the threat on back-to-back pop-outs.
Wallace (6-5) got the win for UNA, pitching eight innings and allowing one run on 12 hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Wall earned his fourth save of the season, pitching one complete inning.
North Alabama plays West Alabama on Monday at 1:30 p.m.
