EMCC Lady Lions sweep Mississippi Delta, 15-3 and 7-4, on the road to set up home softball showdown with Itawamba

MOORHEAD – With their second straight division road sweep, the visiting Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College knocked off Mississippi Delta Community College, 15-3 and 7-4, in MACJC North Division softball action Wednesday afternoon.  

Improving to 18-12 overall and 7-3 within the division with their third division sweep of the year, head coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lady Lions return home to play host to rival Itawamba Community College Saturday afternoon on the Scooba campus.  The ICC Lady Indians currently lead the MACJC's North Division with their 7-1 division mark (15-8 overall), though they haven't played as many division games as East Mississippi to this point in the season.  First pitch for the key EMCC-ICC doubleheader is set for noon on the Scooba campus.

In Wednesday's opening game against Delta, the visitors broke open a tight 4-2 game by sending 16 batters to the plate in the top of the fourth en route to scoring 11 runs on eight hits.  The extended rally was ignited by Jade Albritton's second grand slam of the season  followed by Taylor Hackney's two-run home run later in the inning.  Having previously belted a bases-loaded homer at Hinds a month ago, Albritton's second slam gave her a team-leading three home runs on the year and five for her EMCC career.

In the opener, five EMCC players had multi-hit efforts to highlight the team's 16-hit attack.  Albritton, a product of Wayne County, had an infield single in the third and added another single in her second at-bat of the fourth inning.  Lead-off hitter Kristen Mitchell reached base all five times in the run-ruled opener with three singles and a pair of walks while scoring three runs.  Kasey Stanfield, Abby Roberts and Meri Morgan Fortune all added two hits apiece for the Lady Lions in game one. 

Along with hitting her first home run of the year and fifth of her collegiate career, Hackney raised her pitching record to 6-4 on the year and 10-4 for her career by allowing just two hits and two unearned runs with four strikeouts and no walks in four innings of work.

The visitors jumped on top early in the nightcap with four runs in the top of the first.  Following her RBI single that plated Mitchell, Corey Dawkins stole second and third before trotting home on Stanfield's first collegiate home run.  Seymour capped the four-run first with a run-scoring single.

That would be all of the scoring for a while, as starting pitchers Halie Green of EMCC and Sara Gunter of Mississippi Delta held the respective teams scoreless for the next four innings.  The Lady Lions would break out again in the sixth with three more scores. Four straight singles began the inning that also featured run-producing base hits by Seymour and Whitney Lowe.

Those three additional runs ultimately proved to be meaningful heading into the final frame.  In their last at-bat, the Lady Trojans made things interesting by scoring four two-out runs off Green on an RBI double by Megan Prentiss followed by a three-run homer off the bat of Taylor Seiler.  Green then fanned Lakin Ables to end the game with her 10^th strikeout of the contest.

A sophomore right-hander from Lafayette, La., Green improved to 8-5 in the circle with her 10^th complete game in 11 pitching starts on the year. 

Offensively, EMCC out-hit Delta, 13-11, in the nightcap.  Along with raising her career pitching record to 14-10, Green enjoyed a 3-for-4 outing at the plate.  Dawkins, Stanfield and Seymour also had multi-hit efforts in game two with a pair of hits apiece.