EMCC Lions earn second straight softball sweep with pair of run-rule wins over Holmes

SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College softball team scored in all but one inning and pounded out 29 total hits to sweep Holmes, 13-5 and 10-2, in a pair of run-rule home wins during Tuesday's MACCC action played at the EMCC Softball Field.

The home-standing Lions scored in all five innings during the opening game. After scoring solo runs in each of the first two innings on RBI singles by Lana Atkins and Victoria Irby, EMCC moved ahead 4-0 with two more scores in the third inning on RBIs from twin sisters Gail and Karen Wisher.

The Lady Bulldogs got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth by pushing across a trio of two-out runs against EMCC starting pitcher Carys Goodwin to briefly make it a one-run game. The Lions then exploded for seven runs on seven hits – four for extra bases – to extend the margin to 11-3. While sending a dozen batters to the plate in the bottom of the frame, EMCC's big hits included Atkins' bases-clearing triple – her second three-bagger in as many innings – and Layla Roper's first collegiate home run.

Holmes responded with a pair of runs in the fifth to momentarily extend the game, but the Lions countered in their next at-bat by getting those two runs right back on Rachel Rommel's two-run, walk-off double to close out their first run-rule victory of the afternoon.

EMCC's 16-hit attack in the opener was powered by Atkins' 4-for-4 effort at the plate that included two triples and two singles while driving in four total runs and scoring three times. Rommel was 3-for 4 with a pair of run-producing doubles and a single. Irby and Brianna Byrd followed with two hits apiece for the Lions.

In the circle for the winners, Goodwin improved to 7-2 with her seventh complete game of the season.

In the nightcap, the Lions added 13 more hits and scored in every inning but the third. In doing so, every batter among their starting lineup had at least one hit for the second straight game.

Started by Atkins' two-out RBI double in the opening frame of the second game, EMCC grabbed an early 3-0 after two innings. Following Blair Walsh's two-out, two-run homer off Atkins in the third, Lions got those pair of runs back and reclaimed their three-run lead a frame later on back-to-back RBI singles by Byrd and Atkins.   

As was the case in the opening game, EMCC walked it off in the bottom of the fifth inning. After four consecutive hits to begin the final frame, capped by Devyn DeBardelaben's RBI triple, Gail Wisher's two-out, bases-loaded hit later in the inning supplied the needed runs for the Lions' second run-rule victory of the afternoon.

Continuing her recent hitting spree with a 2-for-3 outing at the plate, Atkins was joined by Byrd, Roper and DeBardelaben all with two hits apiece for EMCC. Atkins also performed well in the circle during the Lions' 10-2 nightcap win by improving to 3-2 on the season with her four-hit, complete-game victory.

Currently owning a four-game win streak that also includes a road conference sweep over Mississippi Delta, head coach Mackenzie Byrd's EMCC Lions (12-8, 4-2 MACCC) will play host to sixth-ranked Jones College on Thursday (March 21) in a rescheduled doubleheader due to last weekend's rainy weather. First pitch for Thursday's EMCC-Jones softball twin-bill is set for 1 p.m. on the Scooba campus. The Lions are then scheduled to conclude their current week-long softball home stand on Saturday (March 23) by hosting Meridian Community College in a noon doubleheader.