EMCC earns softball split at Holmes; Lady Lions head to Itawamba Saturday looking for a win to clinch division title
The division-leading East Mississippi Community College softball team battled back from a tough 2-1 loss in Tuesday's opening game against Holmes Community College to earn a road doubleheader split with a 4-1 nightcap victory over the Lady Bulldogs.
GOODMAN – The division-leading East Mississippi Community College softball team battled back from a tough 2-1 loss in Tuesday's opening game against Holmes Community College to earn a road doubleheader split with a 4-1 nightcap victory over the Lady Bulldogs.
With the split against Holmes, head coach Kyndall White's EMCC squad stands at 24-16 overall on the year and 17-5 in division play. Coupled with Itawamba's Tuesday split against Northeast Mississippi, the Lady Lions remain one full game ahead of ICC (27-12-1, 16-6) atop the MACJC North Division standings heading into Saturday's scheduled regular-season doubleheader finale between the top two teams in the division. With the scheduled first pitch between the Lady Lions and Lady Indians set for noon in Fulton, one EMCC win over Itawamba on Saturday would give the Lady Lions their second division softball championship in three years.
After being held to just one run on only four hits in the opening game by Holmes' Kelsey Marter, the Lady Lions struck early in the nightcap by scoring runs during each of the first three innings. Following a lead-off single in the first by Haley Tutor, freshman shortstop Taylor Hackney belted a two-run homer – her fourth of the year – for a 2-0 EMCC lead.
A sacrifice fly by Misty Richard, who had two of EMCC's four hits in the opener, made it 3-0 in the second. The Lady Lions added an unearned insurance run a frame later to stake starting pitcher Kendra Wilson to a 4-0 lead after three innings.
That's all the run support Wilson would need, as the Millport, Ala., native sailed through the first six innings allowing only a fourth-inning single to Michelle Gregory. Wilson did run into some seventh-inning trouble, yielding four singles and a run before getting Victoria Hunt to line out with the bases loaded to end the game.
The Lady Lions doubled their hit total in the nightcap with eight, led by Abby Roberts' three singles. With a double in the first inning of the opener and two singles in game two, Tutor, a New Hope High School product, extended her hitting streak to 12 consecutive games.
In the circle, EMCC's Wilson went the distance for the nightcap victory, allowing the one run and five singles with three strikeouts and two walks, to improve her season pitching record to 5-4 on the year.
Sophomore right-hander Amelia LaVergne was the tough-luck loser for the Lady Lions in the opening game, falling to 8-6 on the season. The Rayne, La., native allowed only three third-inning singles that combined with two EMCC errors in the same frame resulted in the Lady Bulldogs' two unearned runs.