Pearl River-Baton Rouge split by Joey Martin - posted Thursday, February 14th, 2013 @ 9:53 am  E-mail Story |  Print Story  Pearl River Community College and Baton Rouge Community College split a pair of games at the Concordia Recreation District No. 3 Complex Saturday. Pearl River won the first game 8-1, while Baton Rouge won the nightcap 3-0 with three runs in the top of the 11th inning. The contest was the season-opener for Pearl River, coached by Vidalia native Josh Hoffpauir. Baton Rouge is now 2-6. Pearl River scored in its first at-bat in the first game as Braxton Lee, who signed with Ole Miss, singled up the middle to lead off the contest and later scored on a double steal. Lee had three hits in the contest. "We were flying all over the place the first game and we were able to play like we want to play," Hoffpauir said. "We call it our 'fun and gun offense.'" Baton Rouge tied the game in the top of the second as red-shirt freshman Nicholas Ber of Thibodaux hit the first home run in the park over left-center field by several feet. The home run is the second of the year for Ber. "Nicholas has lot of pro teams talking to him," said Baton Rouge coach L.J. Dupuy. "He has a lot of power. He just needs a little more experience. He can also throw the ball at 92 miles per hour." Pearl River scored three runs in the bottom of the third on a 3-run home run by sophomore catcher Krisjon Wilkerson of Bay St. Louis. "Hopefully that's not his last one," Hoffpauir said. Wilkerson was an All-American selection in football at St. Stanislaus and was all-State in football and baseball. The Wildcats added two in the sixth and one each in the seventh and eighth innings. Paul Pickerrell of Elizabethtown, Ky., had two hits for PRCC. Sophomore Christian Talley of Diamondhead, Ms., got the win for Pearl River. Talley originally signed with Alabama. He will be attending Southern Mississippi next year. "Christian did a good job," Hoffpauir said. "He kept them in check and our defense played well behind him." Sophomore Adam Michael of Lutcher led BRCC with two hits. "We're still not hitting the ball the way we are capable of hitting it," Dupuy said. "And we had some throwing errors, which is very unusual for us. We spent two days working on the double steal play which we knew they would use, but just didn't set our feet on the throws." Baton Rouge had seven hits and committed two errors. Pearl River had 11 hits and three errors. "I like my team, I like our team speed and we have some potential power hitters," Dupuy said. In the second game, freshman Mason Liles of Franklin Parish High pitched 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball for Baton Rouge, while sophomore Jared Keating of St. Charles High shut out the Wildcats the remainder of the contest for the win. Pearl River collected four hits in the contest. Adams County Christian product Jake Brumfield pitched five innings without allowing a run. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out two. "Jake did a good job," Hoffpauir said. "He was a little nervous early, but he battled through some situations, which is what we want to see. We weren't able to get anything going offensively. They did a good job of shutting down our running game in the second contest. We're going to take our bumps and bruises because we only have two guys with playing experience." Baton Rouge had seven hits in the second contest and no errors. Sophomore Bond Babin of Zachary and freshman Darren Bueche, a product of Catholic-Pointe Coupee, led the Bears with two hits each. "It was very nice and we were treated very well," Dupuy said. "We enjoyed playing in Vidalia and had a great experience." "It was a blast to come back home," Hoffpauir said. "It was fun seeing so many familiar faces and coaching in front of some of the same people my dad (Johnny Lee) coached in front of for so many years. It was a special day for me."