Visiting Itawamba spoils East Mississippi's Sophomore Day festivities with 9-4, 9-1 softball sweep
With postseason seeding implications squarely on the line, visiting Itawamba Community College spoiled East Mississippi Community College's Sophomore Day festivities by sweeping the Lady Lions, 9-4 and 9-1, during MACJC North Division play Tuesday afternoon at the EMCC Softball Field.
SCOOBA – With postseason seeding implications squarely on the line, visiting Itawamba Community College spoiled East Mississippi Community College's Sophomore Day festivities by sweeping the Lady Lions, 9-4 and 9-1, during MACJC North Division play Tuesday afternoon at the EMCC Softball Field.
With the top four teams from each of the MACJC's two softball divisions advancing to next week's best-of-three playoff series, the EMCC Lady Lions are now 11-10 in league play and 13-18 overall. Northeast Mississippi (13-7 division record) and Holmes (13-9) are battling EMCC for the final two spots from the MACJC North. Northwest Mississippi (16-4) and Itawamba (18-5) are currently sitting atop the division standings.
In Tuesday's EMCC-Itawamba opening game, the home team got on the scoreboard first with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth off ICC starting pitcher Hannah Johnson. As one of eight East Mississippi sophomores honored during between-game ceremonies, Whitney Lowe's bloop single down the right-field line plated fellow sophomore Kasey Stanfield, who reached base on a two-out walk. Amandalyn Abney followed with an RBI single to give the Lady Lions the early 2-0 lead.
The visitors promptly responded with a two-out rally of their own off EMCC starting pitcher Logan Smith in the top of the fifth. The Lady Indians took advantage of a pair of defensive miscues by the home team to knot the score at 2-2 on consecutive RBI singles by Courtney Roberts and Arriann Henry.
Two scoreless innings followed and an extra frame was needed to decide the outcome of the opening game. A nightmarish eighth inning that was slowed by five EMCC errors led to seven Itawamba runs on just four hits. The Lady Lions did manage to get two of those runs back in the bottom half of the extra inning off reliever Cassidy Hardy on a Heather Abney RBI single and an Anna McCrary run-producing groundout to account for the final margin.
The Lady Lions struck first in the nightcap as well when Heather Abney reached base in the opening frame on a throwing error by ICC starting pitcher Katlin McDuffy and then came around to score on a pair of subsequent wild pitches. But, that was all EMCC was able to muster off McDuffy and reliever Cara Hopper.
Meanwhile, Itawamba scored in four straight innings to build on its lead. After ICC pushed across two runs in the second, Roberts and Taylor Thornton combined to drive in the Lady Indians' next seven runs. Following her solo home run to lead off the third, Roberts added a pair of two-run triples over the next two innings, while Thornton contributed a two-run double in the fifth to help the visitors get to the eight-run mercy rule margin.
On the afternoon, Itawamba out-hit EMCC, 24-11, while the Lady Lions were also slowed by 11 total defensive errors.
In their quest to earn a seventh consecutive postseason appearance, head coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lady Lions are scheduled to play a solo game at Itawamba on Thursday in the resumption of their March 21 road doubleheader that was postponed due to rain. East Mississippi also still has to make up a road twin bill against division foe Mississippi Delta on a playing date to be determined over the next few days.