East Mississippi softball team sweeps Hinds CC, 9-1 and 4-3, for the second time this month

SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College softball team swept Hinds Community College for the second time in less than two weeks with a 9-1 run-ruled victory followed by a 4-3 extra-inning triumph Monday afternoon at the EMCC Softball Field.  

Coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lady Lions, now 4-2 on the year after rebounding from last Friday's home setbacks to Pearl River Community College (5-4 & 10-2), opened the current campaign by previously sweeping Hinds, 15-4 and 14-13, on Feb. 8 in Raymond.    

In Monday's first game, the Lady Lions smacked six extra-base hits and scored in all but one inning to cruise to the six-inning victory.  An early 3-0 EMCC lead was created on the strength of the first three of those extra-base hits.  Following her first-inning triple, Corey Dawkins came in to score on Jade Albritton's two-out single.  Second-inning doubles by sophomores Amber Spann and Charly Boswell were rewarded with run-producing singles by Taylor Hackney and Haley Tutor.

After the visiting Lady Eagles reached EMCC starter Halie Green for a solo run in the top of the fourth inning, the Lady Lions answered with four runs of their own in the bottom of the frame.  Tutor, a former New Hope High School product, capped a 2-for-4 outing with a two-run double to highlight the inning.

EMCC tallied a solo run in the fifth when Hackney's groundout to short plated Abby Roberts, who led off the inning with a triple.  The Lady Lions were able to get to the eight-run, run-rule margin in the next frame when Spann's second double of the contest – and third hit of the game - scored Green after she opened the inning by walking.

Green, from Lafayette, La., improved to 2-1 on the year with the complete-game victory.  The freshman right-hander allowed just four hits, with four strikeouts and two walks, in six innings of work.

The Lady Lions jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the nightcap by scoring two runs in the first inning off Hinds starter Katie Foster.  With EMCC freshman left-hander Tori Seymour allowing just two hits during her scoreless, three-inning starting assignment, the score stayed that way until the visitors scored two runs in the fifth inning and a solo tally in the sixth off relievers Kendra Wilson and Amelia LaVergne, respectively.

With Hinds clinging to a 3-2 lead, it took a two-out RBI double by Albritton in the bottom of the seventh to extend the second game.  Dawkins, from Brooksville by way of Pickens Academy, singled for her second hit of the game and advanced to second on a fielder's choice to set up the game-tying hit.

With the international tiebreaker rule in effect, LaVergne held the Lady Eagles scoreless in the top of the eighth inning.  Freshman Kendal Carpenter pinch-ran for the Lady Lions to begin their extra frame.  After Carpenter advanced to third on a passed ball, Roberts got her second run-scoring hit of the nightcap by singling up the middle for the game-winner.

LaVergne, from Rayne, La., picked up the victory with three innings of relief work in the circle to move to 2-0 on the year.  EMCC's sophomore right-hander allowed one unearned run on two hits, with a pair of strikeouts and no walks, to finish the contest.

The EMCC Lady Lions are scheduled to play a 3 p.m. road softball doubleheader against Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Wednesday in Perkinston before returning home to entertain Southwest Mississippi Community College Friday afternoon on the Scooba campus.  Doubleheader softball action between the host Lady Lions and visiting Lady Bears is set to begin at 1 p.m. at the EMCC Softball Field.