EMCC Lady Lions earn softball doubleheader split against Holmes with 4-3 nightcap home triumph
Kasey Stanfield's three-run blast supplied the winning runs for Jenny Reynolds' complete-game victory, as East Mississippi Community College gained an MACJC North Division softball doubleheader split with visiting Holmes Community College Wednesday afternoon at the EMCC Softball Field. The Lady Lions' 4-3 nightcap victory followed a 5-1 setback in the opening contest.
SCOOBA – Kasey Stanfield's three-run blast supplied the winning runs for Jenny Reynolds' complete-game victory, as East Mississippi Community College gained an MACJC North Division softball doubleheader split with visiting Holmes Community College Wednesday afternoon at the EMCC Softball Field. The Lady Lions' 4-3 nightcap victory followed a 5-1 setback in the opening contest.
Stanfield, who supplied EMCC's only offense in the opening game of the twinbill with a seventh-inning solo homer, broke a 1-1 tie in the nightcap with her second long ball of the day. After Heather Abney and Emily Patrick singled in front of her, the former New Hope High School standout launched her fifth career collegiate home run over the left-center field wall off Holmes starting pitcher Blair Little.
The visitors cut the deficit to 4-2 on Charlesy Lovorn's fourth-inning solo home run off Reynolds. That score held until the Lady Bulldogs rallied in the top of the seventh. Back-to-back singles by Kelsey Kelly and A'Breana Yarbrough followed by an infield error loaded the bases with one out. After Anna Garza's infield grounder plated Holmes' third run and advanced both remaining runners into scoring position, Reynolds got Hayden Grantham to bounce into a game-ending groundout to third base.
Reynolds, a freshman right-hander, improved to a team-leading 4-1 on the season. The Benton Academy product scattered eight hits and struck out three with no walks.
Offensively in the nightcap for the home team, Stanfield and Patrick both went 2-for-3 at the plate. Fellow New Hope product Anna McCrary brought home EMCC's first run with an RBI double in the opening frame.
In game one, Holmes' Kassey Ard limited the Lady Lions to just four hits with seven strikeouts to improve to 9-3 on the year. Also contributing to EMCC's demise in the opener were six defensive errors that led to four unearned runs.
Besides Stanfield's solo homer, the only other hits allowed by Ard in the opener were a pair of singles by Marissa Landrum and a first-inning single by Patrick.
Coach Kyndall White's EMCC Lady Lions, now 12-15 overall and 10-7 in division play, turn right around and travel to Fulton for a complete 1 p.m. single game Thursday at Itawamba Community College in the resumption of a March 21 division doubleheader that was halted due to rain. The Lady Indians prevailed, 7-4, in that earlier encounter on the ICC campus.