EMCC Lions notch second straight MACCC softball sweep with 7-2, 7-3 home wins over Delta

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College's softball team stayed unbeaten in MACCC play by posting a 7-2, 7-3 home sweep over Mississippi Delta during Wednesday's conference action played at the EMCC Softball Field on the Scooba campus.

The Lions utilized complete-game pitching performances from Laken Firth and Carys Goodwin combined with 22 total hits on the afternoon to secure their second straight home conference sweep. This past Saturday, EMCC knocked off Hinds, 4-2 and 6-5, to snap a seven-game slide prior to the start of the MACCC slate.

In Wednesday's opener, the Lions took advantage of some early infield miscues by Mississippi Delta to push across a pair of unearned runs in the opening frame. Celeste Study began her successful day at the plate with a first-inning sacrifice fly.

After the Trojans briefly knotted the score at 2-2 with four singles during a two-run third inning for the visitors, EMCC untied the game on Lana Atkins' two-out RBI double in the home half of the frame.

That would prove to be the only run support Firth would need for the remainder of the contest, as the sophomore right-hander settled down to retire the last 11 batters she faced after giving up an infield single to lead off the fourth inning.

The Lions provided four additional insurance runs for Firth over the next two innings to help secure her fourth win of the season. Study drove home her second run of the game in the fifth inning with a two-out single behind Atkins' second double of the contest. The following frame, Sidney Argo, Layla Roper and Madalyn Dvorak all came around to score after hitting consecutive singles to ignite a three-run inning that was aided by an infield throwing error by the Trojans.

In the nightcap, freshman pitcher Carys Goodwin helped her own cause at the plate while making her first collegiate start in the circle. After earning her first two EMCC pitching wins in relief during the Lions' home sweep of Hinds this past Saturday, the Corinth High School product smacked her first collegiate home run – a two-run blast – to cap the Lions' three-run opening frame against Delta.

The two teams then later traded runs in the second and fifth innings to account for the final margin. After the Trojans got on the board with a two-out RBI single by Erica Janson in the second inning, EMCC countered in the home half with Devyn DeBardelaben's two-out, run-scoring single to make it a 4-1 game.

The visitors then trimmed the deficit to 4-3 with two tallies in the fifth frame on consecutive run-scoring hits by Elizabeth Carpenter and Aubrey Carr. The Lions answered in the bottom of the inning when back-to-back doubles by Study and Atkins preceded singles from Anna Claire Brewer and Argo to help produce three insurance runs.

Led by Study's 3-for-3 effort at the plate, EMCC totaled 13 hits among eight different players in the nightcap victory. Argo, DeBardelaben and Atkins all added two hits apiece for the Lions.

Head coach Mackenzie Byrd's EMCC Lions (7-17, 4-0 MACCC) are scheduled to travel to Ellisville to take on nationally fifth-ranked Jones College during a Saturday (March 18) doubleheader set for a 2 p.m. first pitch.