EMCC Lady Lions get into the win column with softball DH split at Southwest

SUMMIT — The Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College got into the win column by earning a doubleheader split on the road against Southwest Mississippi during Saturday's MACCC softball action played at Lady Bear Park.  After dropping an 8-5 decision in the opener, EMCC belted three home runs and Rylee Bourland threw a complete-game five-hitter to earn an 8-2 nightcap victory.

After hitting a pair of home runs in the opening game, the Lady Lions continued swinging the hot bat during the nightcap.  Jenna Coker's two-run homer – her second of the day – followed Hope Thames' RBI double in the first inning to give the visitors an early 3-0 lead.

Solo shots by Lily Ramsey and Bourland in the second and fourth innings, respectively, extended EMCC's lead to 5-0, before Southwest got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with solo homers off the bats of Jade Latham and Bailey Buckley.

The Lady Lions responded by adding some insurance runs first with Kaitlynn Stroud's two-out, two-run single in the fifth inning and then on a mishandled fly ball to left field two frames later that accounted for the 8-2 final in the second game.

Offensively in the nightcap, Ramsey and Stroud paced EMCC's nine-hit team effort with two hits apiece.  Along with hitting her first two home runs of her collegiate career during the doubleheader – one in each game – Bourland picked up her first collegiate pitching victory as well.  The Hatley High School product scattered five hits over seven innings and didn't issue a walk during her complete-game win.

During the opening contest, the visitors responded to Southwest's solo run in the first inning with a pair of scores a frame later.  Ramsey's two-out RBI double gave EMCC the brief 2-1 lead, before the Lady Bears answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the second.

After the Lady Lions knotted the score at 3-3 on Bourland's lead-off homer in the fourth, Southwest took the lead for good by plating three runs in the home half of the inning.  Latham capped the frame by belting a two-run home run off EMCC reliever Taylor Watkins, who had replaced starting pitcher Maggie Meadows.

The two teams then added two runs apiece in the fifth inning to complete the game's scoring.  Coker's first two-run blast of the afternoon was countered by Jenna Brock's two-run single to provide the final three-run margin.

Hope Thames paced EMCC's nine-hit team effort with three singles, while Coker went 2-for-4 at the plate in the opener.

Coach Austin McNair's EMCC Lady Lions (1-15, 1-9 in MACCC) continue their week-long span of games away from home with scheduled softball road doubleheaders at Northeast Mississippi and Pearl River on Tuesday (March 16) and Saturday (March 20), respectively.