Special to the Item 

GOODMAN — Pearl River’s Wildcats split here Sunday at Charlie Donald Field on the campus of Holmes Community College, nipping Mineral Area College (Mo.) 6-5 before falling to the host Bulldogs 7-2.

PRCC is now 10-2 overall, while MAC, a Division I program out of Park Hills, Mo., dropped to 8-5. HCC is now 8-2.

Against the Cardinals, both teams scored solo runs in the first inning before The River took a brief 2-1 lead with a run in the bottom of the second. Mineral Area went up 3-2 edge with a pair of runs in the top of the third, while Pearl River tied it up in the bottom of the frame.

The Cardinals’ solo run in the fourth made it 4-3, but the Wildcats took the lead for good with three in the bottom of the inning. MAC scored the game’s final run in the top of the sixth.

Starter Jake Brumfield out of Adam Christian Academy in Natchez (3-0) picked up the win in his five inning on the mound, giving up five hits, striking out seven, and walking one, while Colton Lee of Columbia High saw 1.2 innings of relief duty, giving up a hit, and LeDarien Lee of Forrest County AHS pitched one-third of a frame, striking out one.

Cardinal starter Jalen Miller (1-1) got the loss.

Corey Lubinski and Charlie Palmer (one RBI) both doubled to lead MAC’s six-hit effort.

PRCC also finished with six hits, led by Darien Brown of Hattiesburg High with two singles, while Nathan Pugh of Starkville High and Jacob Taylor of Picayune High (one RBI) both tripled. Lamar Anthony of Vicksburg High had a two-RBI double, while Derrick Mount of Harrison Central High (two RBIs) and Zach O’Hern of Hancock County High (one RBI) both had base hits.

Against Holmes in the nightcap game, things were scoreless for the first three innings before Pearl River scored two in the top of the fourth only to see the Bulldogs go up 3-2 in the bottom of the frame. After a scoreless fifth, the Wildcats tied it up in the top of the sixth, but Holmes blasted the game’s final four runs in the bottom of the inning to make it 7-3.

Starter Cole Feazell (2-0) got the win.

Starter Luke McGee (2-1), a Ohio State transfer out of Wooster (Oh.) High, got the loss in his five and two-thirds innings on the mound, giving up 10 hits and striking out five, while Trevor Bennett of Hancock County High pitched the final out of the sixth, giving up a hit.

PRCC finished with only three hits, including a triple and a single by Mount (two RBIs).

Cole McBride (two RBIs), Chad McNeil, and Washington (two RBIs) paced the Bulldogs’ 11-hit attack with two singles apiece.

Holmes defeated Mineral Area 7-6 earlier in the day.

Pearl River returned to action Tuesday when it traveled to LSU-Eunice in Eunice, La., for a 4 p.m. doubleheader before hosting Bishop State (Ala.) Friday in a 4 p.m. twin bill in Wildcat Stadium in Poplarville.