East Mississippi opens long-awaited home softball slate with 8-4, 5-1 doubleheader sweep over Holmes
In their home softball opener coming more than a month after the start of the season, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College made it worth the wait by sweeping Holmes Community College, 8-4 and 5-1, during Tuesday afternoon MACJC action at the EMCC Softball Field.
SCOOBA – In their home softball opener coming more than a month after the start of the season, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College made it worth the wait by sweeping Holmes Community College, 8-4 and 5-1, during Tuesday afternoon MACJC action at the EMCC Softball Field.
After playing their first 16 games of the season away from the Scooba campus, head coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lions out-hit the Lady Bulldogs, 20-10, on the afternoon to move to 9-9 overall and 4-2 in conference play with the sweep.
As they did in both games, the Lions took the early lead by plating a pair of runs in the opening inning on run-scoring hits by Sydney Olander and Emily Patrick. EMCC scored two more times in the second when Olander followed Blake Rigdon's RBI single with a triple to make it 4-0.
Control problems in the third for EMCC starting pitcher Zoie LaVergne and reliever Chandler Ellis contributed to three Holmes runs without a hit in the inning. After the two sophomores combined to walk four straight batters, Ellis induced a bases-loaded fly out to get out of the jam.
Olander and Patrick, who combined for five hits and six RBIs in the opener along with nine hits and nine RBIs during the sweep, struck again in the fourth. Patrick followed Olander's two-run double with an RBI single to extend the lead to 7-3.
After both teams pushed across solo tallies in the fifth to account for the final margin, freshman left-hander Ciara Steward had to first work out of some sixth-inning trouble. With the bases loaded and only one out, EMCC third baseman Marissa Landrum snared a line drive off the bat of Reagan Aldridge and doubled off the runner at third to thwart the potential rally. Steward, out of Bruce High School, was key in relief for the Lions by allowing only one unearned run on just four hits over the final four innings.
Olander (3-for-4 with 4 RBIs) and Patrick (2-for-4 with 2 RBIs) combined for five of EMCC's 10 hits in the opener. Danielle Darmohray had a double and a single along with being hit by a pitch.
The nightcap started off with a bang for the home team when Patrick smacked her first collegiate home run over the left-centerfield fence with Mallory Vance and Olander aboard. The Lions added solo runs in the third on Rachel Rooney's run-producing single and three frames later on Kaitlyn Brannon's RBI double to extend the lead to 5-0.
Meanwhile in the circle, EMCC freshman Jordan Self, from Lanett, Alabama, limited the Lady Bulldogs to just three singles with four strikeouts through the first six innings before losing her shutout in the seventh after back-to-back, extra-base hits from Torey Daniels and Micah Redd to begin the frame. Sophomore southpaw Valiree Blair promptly came in to retire three straight batters in relief to nail down the victory and secure the sweep.
With another 10 hits as a team in the nightcap, Olander and Patrick were joined by Rooney and Brannon with two hits apiece for the winners.
Weather permitting, the East Mississippi softball team is scheduled to play host to Copiah-Lincoln in a 2 p.m. Friday doubleheader on the Scooba campus.