EMCC Lady Lions earn division softball split against Northeast with 11-3 run-rule decision in game one
East Mississippi Community College earned a second MACJC North Division softball split in as many days by claiming an 11-3 run-rule decision in Sunday’s opening game of a doubleheader against visiting Northeast Mississippi Community College. The Lady Tigers bounced back with a 3-1 victory in the nightcap to gain the split at the EMCC Softball Field.
SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College earned a second MACJC North Division softball split in as many days by claiming an 11-3 run-rule decision in Sunday's opening game of a doubleheader against visiting Northeast Mississippi Community College. The Lady Tigers bounced back with a 3-1 victory in the nightcap to gain the split at the EMCC Softball Field.
After snapping their 11-game losing skid with a 7-4 nightcap win Saturday afternoon at Holmes Community College, the Lady Lions carried that momentum into Sunday's twinbill versus Northeast. EMCC quickly went on top in the opener by scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on a passed ball and resulting error at the plate after Kristen Mitchell and Heather Abney had led off the inning with consecutive singles.
The visitors pulled even in the third with three straight two-out hits off EMCC starting pitcher Jenny Reynolds. Northeast's Avery Springer singled in front of a run-scoring triple by Yasmeen Cooper, who was then singled in by Haley Christian.
The Lady Lions promptly answered with three runs in the bottom of the third to move back ahead 5-2. Anna McCrary's one-out double started a rally that resulted in two runs scoring on Amandalyn Abney's bases-loaded sacrifice fly to right field followed by Miranda Crenshaw's RBI single.
An inning later, the home team batted around in scoring six runs on just three hits to break open the contest. Aided by three walks, a hit batsman, an error and another passed ball, EMCC's big inning was both started and capped by sophomore centerfielder Pepper Baker. The New Orleans native smashed a double to left-centerfield to open the frame and then drove home a pair of runs with a single to centerfield in her second at-bat of the inning.
Offensively in the opener, eight of the nine starting hitters for the Lady Lions had at least one hit. Both Baker and Mitchell led the way for EMCC with 2-for-3 efforts at the plate.
In the circle, Reynolds went the distance in the five-inning opener to move to 2-1 on the year. The freshman right-hander from Benton Academy scattered seven hits while fanning two and walking a pair.
After Northeast took an early 2-1 lead through two innings in the nightcap, the contest then turned into a pitching duel between Northeast starter Brittany Taylor and EMCC left-hander Valiree Blair, who relieved starting pitcher Chandler Ellis in the third inning.
The Lady Lions' lone run in game two came on McCrary's two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the first. However, they stranded the bases loaded and went on to leave 10 runners on base in the contest.
The visitors came right back to take advantage of three Ellis walks by pushing across two runs in the top of the second. The score would stay 2-1 in favor of Northeast until the game-deciding sixth inning.
In the top of the sixth, the Lady Tigers plated an insurance run off EMCC's Blair as Maggie Martin and pinch-hitter Genna Grace Edmondson stroked back-to-back, two-out doubles. The Lady Lions responded by loading the bases in the bottom half of the frame with no outs. However, Baker popped up behind Martin at second base, who promptly threw out Marissa Landrum at home trying to score on the tag from third base. After Mitchell was hit by a pitch to again load the bases, Northeast's Taylor got Heather Abney to also pop out to second base to end the rally and preserve the victory. Abney had entered the crucial at-bat with singles during each of her three prior plate appearances in the contest.
Coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lady Lions, 4-12 overall and 2-4 within the division, continue league play by traveling to Clarksdale to meet Coahoma Community College on Monday, March 16.