Pair of three-run homers lift EMCC to 9-4 nightcap win and DH softball split at Delta

MOORHEAD – Three-run homers by freshmen Mackenzie Dolan and Madelyn Wilkes powered the East Mississippi Community College softball team to a 9-4 nightcap road win and a doubleheader split with Mississippi Delta during Monday's MACJC action played at the Carl & Brenda Grubb Softball Complex.  The home-standing Lady Trojans claimed a 5-4 walk-off victory in the opening game.   

The visitors grabbed an early 3-0 lead in the second game on Dolan's three-run blast off Delta starting pitcher Kaeli Lognion in the first inning. 

Mississippi Delta answered two innings later by batting through the lineup in scoring four runs on five hits.  Jessica Irion and Kassie Comeaux provided the scoring with two-run singles off EMCC starting pitcher Hadlee Lewis.

The Lady Lions promptly responded by scoring four runs of their own in their next at-bat.  Aided by a pair of misjudged fly balls by Delta to extend the fourth frame, EMCC capitalized with a Dolan sacrifice fly followed by Wilkes' two-out, three-run homer to move back ahead 7-4.

While Lewis was settling down in the circle by holding MDCC scoreless over the final four innings, East Mississippi tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh to account for the final margin and secure the twin-bill split.

Wilkes keyed EMCC's 12-hit team effort with three hits and a walk in the nightcap.  Along with her second home run of the year, the Noxapater product also added a lead-off double in the seventh inning and a first-inning single.

In making just her second EMCC appearance after sitting out last year as well as the first half of this season due to injury, Lewis scattered nine hits over seven innings to earn her first collegiate pitching victory.  The Newnan, Georgia native struck out one and walked only one during the complete-game win.

The Lady Lions got on the scoreboard first during the afternoon's initial contest on Megan Cummins' run-scoring single in the second inning.

Two frames later, Delta reached EMCC starting pitcher Britney Bonney for three runs on five hits to take a 3-1 lead through four innings.           

The two teams traded solo tallies in the fifth when Hope Thames' RBI single was answered by Sara Lawrence's two-out, run-producing single to keep it a two-run margin at 4-2.

The visitors then benefited from two-out triples during each of the next two innings to add solo runs in the sixth and seventh.  After Blake Bond followed Cummins' sixth-inning triple with an RBI single, Thames capped a 4-for-4 outing at the plate by knocking in Bonney, who drew a two-out walk, with an opposite-field triple to tie the game at 4-4.

The Lady Trojans then worked a little two-out triple magic of their own in the bottom of the seventh.  Following consecutive fly outs to open the frame for Delta, Baley McCurdy's single preceded Lawrence's game-winning triple to right-center field.

Coach Austin McNair's EMCC Lady Lions, 7-15 overall and 7-10 in conference play, travel to Meridian to take on the MCC Lady Eagles in a 3 p.m. Wednesday doubleheader at Tommy McDonald Field.