Nine-day softball home stand continues for win-hungry EMCC Lions

SCOOBA – Looking to get into the win column, East Mississippi Community College continues its softball home stand this week on the Scooba campus.  The Lions will welcome Marion Military Institute and Wallace State Community College-Hanceville for respective Tuesday and Thursday doubleheaders.  Both twin bills are set for 2 p.m. starts at the EMCC Softball Field.

EMCC continued its challenging, season-opening softball slate last week by playing host to a pair of preseason nationally ranked opponents.  This past Friday against preseason 10^th-ranked NJCAA Division I foe Shelton State, the Lions battled back from an early 6-3 deficit to tie the score at 6-6 before falling, 9-7, on a three-run homer by Madison Chambers in the seventh inning.

Offensively in the opening contest against Shelton State, sophomores Danielle Darmohray, Kendall Wilkinson and Sydney Olander all collected two hits apiece for EMCC.  Darmohray, from Biloxi, belted her first home run of the season and third of her career to lead off the bottom of the seventh in the Lions' comeback attempt.

Despite a three-run third inning by EMCC in the Shelton State nightcap, including a two-run single by Corinth's Rebekah Williams, the Lions dropped a 12-4, run-rule decision to the visiting Bucs from Tuscaloosa.

East Mississippi opened its current nine-day home stand by welcoming preseason 12^th-ranked NJCAA Division II rival East Central to campus for a Wednesday doubleheader.  In the first game, EMCC's five-run seventh inning, which included back-to-back, run-scoring triples by Olander and Averi Pender, wasn't enough in a 14-8 setback to the Warriors.  Pender, a Union High School product, was 4-for-4 at the plate with four runs batted in, including her first homer of the season and fifth of her career in the opening frame.

In the nightcap against East Central, the Lions were limited to five hits in a 10-2, run-rule loss.  EMCC freshman Magnolia Keller, out of D'Iberville, smacked her team-leading second homer of the year with a solo shot in the fourth inning.  In the circle for the Lions, sophomore right-hander Jordan Self, from Lanett, Alabama, held the Warrior batters in check by allowing just one hit in three innings of relief work.

Coach Kyndall White's 0-8 EMCC Lions previously opened the 2017 softball campaign by dropping four decisions at the Wildcat Invitational, hosted by Pearl River Community College, Feb. 10-11, in Poplarville.