Third-seeded EMCC Lady Lions set for best-of-three softball playoff series at Mississippi Gulf Coast
Set to make the school's sixth consecutive postseason softball appearance this weekend in Perkinston, the East Mississippi Community College softball team travels to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for a best-of-three playoff series in advance of next week's MACJC State Softball Tournament.
SCOOBA – Set to make the school's sixth consecutive postseason softball appearance this weekend in Perkinston, the East Mississippi Community College softball team travels to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for a best-of-three playoff series in advance of next week's MACJC State Softball Tournament.
The series opener between EMCC, the third-seeded team from the MACJC's North Division, and No. 2 South seed MGCCC (31-16, 18-10) is set for a 6 p.m. start Friday night at Ross-Smith Field on the Mississippi Gulf Coast campus. The first pitch of game two is scheduled for noon on Saturday, while a third and deciding game, if necessary, would immediately follow. The series winner, along with the three other best-of-three playoff series victors, will advance to participate in next week's state tournament. In its first year reformatted as a double-elimination, four-team event, the new-look MACJC State Softball Tournament is set for next Friday-Sunday (May 2-4) at a site to be determined based on the results of this weekend's playoff action.
This weekend's other best-of-three softball playoff series will have MACJC North Division champion and 11th-ranked Itawamba (35-10, 21-3) playing host to No. 4 South seed East Central (32-14, 17-11), No. 2 North seed Northwest Mississippi (29-12, 18-6) entertaining No. 3 South seed Pearl River (24-16, 18-10), along with MACJC South Division champion and second-ranked Jones County (41-2, 26-2) hosting No. 4 North seed Northeast Mississippi (21-25, 14-10).
Earlier this season (Feb. 22) in Scooba, the visiting MGCCC Lady Bulldogs swept East Mississippi, 10-3 and 9-1, in MACJC inter-division softball action.
With the most single-season wins in the history of the school's fastpitch softball program, head coach Kyndall White's 27-20 EMCC Lady Lions finished third in the MACJC's North Division softball standings with a 16-8 division mark. Most recently, the Lady Lions snapped their five-game losing skid by posting a pair of division wins at Coahoma during Wednesday's makeup doubleheader in Clarksdale. After claiming a 14-1 run-rule decision in game one against Coahoma, EMCC was awarded the nightcap victory via forfeit when the shorthanded Lady Tigers couldn't field a complete team due to injury.
In preparation for this weekend's softball playoff series at Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Lady Lions previously dropped a pair of shutout decisions (6-0 and 9-0) at top-ranked LSU Eunice last Saturday before falling 4-3 at Copiah-Lincoln in a single game played Tuesday in Wesson.
MACJC Softball Standings & Scores