East Mississippi takes 7-5 nightcap win to split softball doubleheader at Northeast Mississippi
The East Mississippi Community College softball team earned an MACJC road doubleheader split at Northeast Mississippi Community College with a 7-5 nightcap victory following a tough-luck 3-2 loss Wednesday afternoon at David Carnell Memorial Field.
BOONEVILLE – The East Mississippi Community College softball team earned an MACJC road doubleheader split at Northeast Mississippi Community College with a 7-5 nightcap victory following a tough-luck 3-2 loss Wednesday afternoon at David Carnell Memorial Field.
In the opening contest, the Lions took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on Averi Pender's team-leading fourth home run of the season. The Union native worked a 3-2 count after falling behind 0-2 with two outs and then deposited Brittany Taylor's offering over the left-centerfield fence with Mallory Vance aboard.
That run support stood up for EMCC starting pitcher Zoie LaVergne through the first four innings, as the sophomore left-hander retired the first 10 batters she faced before allowing a bunt single to Taylor in the fourth frame.
The Tigers eventually got to LaVergne late in the contest by plating solo runs in each of the final three innings to pull out the come-from-behind victory. Madison Davis' lead-off double in the fifth led to an RBI single by Chelsea Gates. After an unearned run scored on a wild pitch in the sixth, Northeast's Molly Walden got the winning rally started with a one-out single in the final frame. She was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and later came around to score on Tia Davis' walk-off, run-scoring single.
Each team had seven hits in the opener, though Taylor limited the visitors to just two infield singles over the final four innings. EMCC's Vance and Marissa Landrum each had two hits in the opener.
The nightcap featured plenty of scoring early in the contest, as all but one of the game's dozen runs crossed the plate during the first two frames. In the top of the first, the Lions took advantage of a pair of Northeast errors to push across the first two runs. The Tigers promptly greeted EMCC starting pitcher Valiree Blair with six hits that produced five runs in the bottom half of the first.
The visitors turned right around to reclaim the lead at 6-5 by scoring four second-inning runs off Northeast starting pitcher Jessica Boyd. With the first five EMCC batters reaching base safely, the four-run frame was capped by Landrum's two-run single.
As both starting pitchers seemed to settle down in the circle through the middle innings, the visitors added a key insurance run in the sixth on Emily Patrick's clutch two-out RBI single that brought home Vance for her third run of the game.
The Lions had seven more hits as a team in the nightcap with Vance, Sydney Olander and Patrick at the top of the lineup all contributing two hits apiece. Vance, from West Lauderdale High School, had four total hits on the afternoon to go along with her four runs scored. Patrick and Landrum each drove home three runs for the winners in the second game.
After battling through some first-inning trouble, Blair went the distance in the finale scattering 11 hits with a strikeout and two walks en route to registering her fourth straight win of the season.
Coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lions, now 16-14 overall and 11-7 in MACJC play, return home to play host to Hinds Community College in a Saturday doubleheader beginning at noon on the Scooba campus.