EMCC Lady Lions run-rule visiting Coahoma, 17-0 and 11-3, to move to 4-0 in softball divisional play

SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College softball team improved to 4-0 in division play by sweeping visiting Coahoma Community College, 17-0 and 11-3, in a pair of run-ruled contests played Saturday afternoon at the EMCC Softball Field.

Winners of seven of their last eight decisions, the EMCC Lady Lions had 10 hits during each game of the doubleheader sweep but were also the recipients of 25 bases on balls by Coahoma pitchers during the afternoon.

The home team received eight of those free passes, plus four wild pitches and a passed ball, during a nine-run first inning in which they sent 15 batters to the plate in the first game.  EMCC batted around again in the second by scoring four more runs with the aid of five additional walks. 

The Lady Lions completed the 17-0 shutout victory by scoring three more times in the third and adding another run in the fourth on Angel Johnson's two-out, RBI double.  Johnson, from Quitman High School, had two hits in the opener after replacing starting left fielder Haley Tutor early in the contest.

Fellow freshman Meri Morgan Fortune, of South Panola High School, also had two hits in the opening game, including her own two-out, RBI double in the second inning.

In the circle, freshman left-hander Tori Seymour evened her pitching record at 1-1 on the year by going the distance in the opener.  The D'Iberville native only surrendered a lead-off triple in the first and a fifth-inning single while striking out eight and walking three.

Second-game EMCC starter Taylor Hackney staked herself to an early 1-0 lead by smacking her second home run of the year in the second inning.  The Lady Lions added a second run later in the inning following four more walks by Coahoma pitching.

Hackney ran into some of her own control problems in the third by walking a pair and seeing her 2-0 lead turn into a 3-2 deficit on a two-out, three-run double by the Lady Tigers.

The freshman right-hander would settle down in the circle as the Lady Lions plated five runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth to close out the run-ruled doubleheader sweep by an 11-3 final.  The big hits in the final two innings were Charly Boswell's two-run single in the fourth frame and Johnson's two-run double in the fifth.

Along with improving her pitching mark to 2-0 on the year with the complete-game two-hitter, Hackney went 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored in the nightcap.  In addition to fanning seven in the circle, the former Bayou Academy standout added a fifth-inning double to her second-inning solo blast.

Freshman Corey Dawkins, of Brooksville, added two singles, two runs scored and three stolen bases in the second game after scoring three runs and being credited with three runs batted in during the opener.   

Coach Kyndall White's 11-9 EMCC Lady Lions stay at home this coming week to play host to division foe Northeast Mississippi Community College in a 3 p.m. twin bill on Tuesday before entertaining Copiah-Lincoln Community College in a 1 p.m. Thursday doubleheader on the Scooba campus.