EMCC Lady Lions gain division doubleheader split with visiting Itawamba via 5-2 nightcap victory
Kendra Wilson's complete-game, four-hit pitching effort and four costly errors by visiting Itawamba lifted East Mississippi Community College to a 5-2 nightcap victory and division doubleheader split with ICC during Friday's softball action played on the Scooba campus. The Lady Indians claimed a 3-1 triumph in the opener.
SCOOBA – Kendra Wilson's complete-game, four-hit pitching effort and four costly errors by visiting Itawamba lifted East Mississippi Community College to a 5-2 nightcap victory and division doubleheader split with ICC during Friday's softball action played on the Scooba campus. The Lady Indians claimed a 3-1 triumph in the opener.
Marking the conclusion of the first half of the regular-season division softball slate, Friday's twin bill featured two teams battling for the top spot in the MACJC North Division race. With the split, ICC (9-3) remained one full game ahead of EMCC (8-4) in the division standings. The doubleheader was originally scheduled for Wednesday but delayed two days because of persistent rain showers.
Just as they did in Friday's opener, the visitors claimed an early 1-0 lead on a first-inning sacrifice fly by Jessi Patterson. The Lady Lions bounced right back by scoring two unearned runs in the bottom half of the frame to move ahead 2-1.
EMCC plated another run in the third on Jade Albritton's sacrifice fly to center field that scored Halie Green, who led off the inning with an opposite-field single and later moved around to third base on Abby Roberts' sacrifice bunt.
Two innings later, the home team capitalized on a two-out infield error when Amber Spann's solid double to deep left field scored both Green and Albritton to bump the score to 5-1.
Meanwhile in the circle for the Lady Lions, Wilson kept the Itawamba bats in check en route to improving her season's pitching record to 2-4. The freshman right-hander from Millport, Ala., scattered four hits over seven innings while striking out two and not issuing a walk.
Offensively for EMCC in game two, Spann, a Clarkdale High School product, went 2-for-3 with three runs batted in. Fellow sophomore Haley Tutor, from New Hope High School, had a double and a single in both contests.
In Friday's opener, the two teams traded solo tallies in the first frame. Patterson's run-scoring sacrifice fly was matched by Albritton's RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
The visitors added an unearned run in the third to extend the lead to 2-1. EMCC starting pitcher Amelia LaVergne (5-5) ran into more trouble in the sixth when the Lady Indians plated their third run of the game and threatened to score additional insurance runs. However, LaVergne got Kami Roberts to bounce into a force out at home and Patterson to fly out to center leaving the bases loaded.
As both teams struggled to produce clutch hits in timely situations, EMCC and Itawamba managed to both leave nine runners on base during the opening contest. The Lady Lions stranded two runners on base during three of the final four innings against complete-game winner Rebecca Sloan.
Out-hitting ICC, 9-8, in game one, EMCC received two hits apiece from Tutor, Corey Dawkins and Charly Boswell.
In the midst of a week-long homestand, head coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lady Lions, now 15-15 overall, play host to division foe Mississippi Delta Community College in a 1 p.m. Saturday doubleheader. The homestand concludes with a Tuesday twin bill versus rival Meridian Community College set for a 3 p.m. start on the Scooba campus.