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PERKINSTON – The top-seeded Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College dropped a 6-4 opening-round decision to the defending state champion Pearl River Lady Wildcats Thursday afternoon at the 2011 MACJC State Softball Tournament hosted by Mississippi Gulf Coast CC.
Pearl River, seeded fourth out of the MACJC’s South Division, took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI bloop single by Brandy Rester. Despite loading the bases to begin the frame, the Lady Wildcats managed just the single tally, as EMCC starting pitcher Amy Johnson worked out of the jam and left the bases jammed.
While PRCC starting pitcher Heather Hester was holding the Lady Lions scoreless through the opening three innings, the Lady Wildcats increased their margin to 4-0 in the fourth on a two-out run-scoring single by Rester followed by a two-run home run by Jordan Adams.
Riding the momentum of earning the school’s first outright MACJC North Division title in fastpitch competition, East Mississippi got on track midway through the contest to even at 4-4 with a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, sophomore Nashedra Barry’s two-run single to the left field gap cut the deficit in half by plating both Cory Roberson and Leigh Ellen Barefield, who had walked and doubled, respectively. The next frame, in an inning prolonged by two PRCC miscues, Jessie Clark’s two-out pop-up single to short left field scored Mallory Pace, who was able to get into scoring position following an opposite-field single via an errant throw from the outfield. After Roberson’s grounder to third was misplayed at both corners, Barefield smashed her second double in as many innings down the left field line to bring home courtesy runner Cassandra Cobb with the tying run.
However, after the Lady Lions left the bases loaded to end their two-run fifth inning, Pearl River immediately got busy with four consecutive one-out singles in the sixth to reclaim the momentum. With the bases jammed, Adams’ two-run single up the middle provided the final margin of the first-round contest.
After reaching Hester for nine hits through the first five innings, EMCC went down in order in the sixth and seventh frames. The Lady Lions also stranded eight runners on base through those opening five innings.
Barefield, Barry and Pace all had two hits apiece for the Lady Lions. In the circle, Johnson fell to 17-12 on the season, giving up 11 hits, striking out three and allowing only one walk in going the distance for EMCC.
Improving to 21-20 overall on the season, the Lady Wildcats were led by Rester’s 4-for-4 effort at the plate from the leadoff position. Adams went 2-for-4 with four runs batted in.
Pearl River advances to take on 19th-ranked East Central - a 4-0 winner over Northwest Mississippi – in Friday’s semifinals at 2 p.m. The preceding semifinal-round contest will pit host and seventh-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast against Jones County beginning at noon, as all four MACJC South Division teams prevailed over North Division clubs in Thursday’s opening-round games. JCJC claimed a 2-0 win over Itawamba, while MGCCC bested Northeast Mississippi 7-4 during Thursday’s nightcap. Friday’s championship contest is slated to begin at 5 p.m.
With their MACJC North Division championship and automatic regional berth in hand, head coach Kate Neely’s 23-21 EMCC Lady Lions now await their first-round opponent in next week’s (May 5-7) NJCAA Region 23 Championship to be held at Traceway Park in Clinton. The regional tournament pairings will be made available following the completion of the MACJC State Softball Tournament.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 29 April 2011 )
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.jpg "Image") Fresh from their division-clinching doubleheader sweep of Itawamba, head coach Kate Neely’s top-seeded EMCC Lady Lions will face defending state champion Pearl River during Thursday’s opening round of the 2011 MACJC State Softball Tournament. The two-day, single-elimination tournament is being hosted by Mississippi Gulf Coast CC in Perkinston.
With a 23-20 overall record on the season, including a division-best 19-5 league mark, head coach Kate Neely’s EMCC Lady Lions enter this week’s state tournament riding the momentum of last week’s division-clinching home doubleheader sweep of Itawamba. Needing to win both games a week ago against the visiting Lady Indians to claim the division title and secure the resulting No. 1 tournament seed, EMCC held on for a 4-2 opening win over ICC and then rallied to take the nightcap, 5-4, with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Making their third straight appearance in the MACJC State Softball Tournament, the Lady Lions own an impressive .342 collective team batting average on the year. With all eight non-pitching position players batting .313 or better for the season, EMCC is paced at the plate by freshman third baseman Lainie Simcox. The former Southeast Lauderdale standout enters postseason play hitting a club-best .470 with a team-high six home runs. Sophomore shortstop Mallory Pace, a Northeast Lauderdale product, follows at .397 while leading the Lady Lions with 34 runs batted in and 37 runs scored.
In the circle for East Mississippi, freshman right-hander Amy Johnson, of Starks, La., leads the way with a 17-11 pitching record, including 81 strikeouts and only 31 walks in 176 innings of work on the year. Sophomore right-hander Nashedra Barry owns a 6-3 record and staff-best 1.39 ERA along with posting a .353 batting average as EMCC’s starting first baseman when she’s not pitching.
Guided by ninth-year head coach Leigh White, the Lady Wildcats of Pearl River Community College earned the South Division’s No. 4 seed after managing a doubleheader split against then-No.17 Jones County during last week’s regular-season finale in Ellisville. As the defending MACJC state champion, PRCC enters postseason play with a 20-20 overall record and 12-12 division mark. Seeded fourth in last season’s MACJC tournament as well, the Lady Wildcats collected their school-first state softball title a year ago on the Itawamba campus by knocking off host ICC in the first round, Mississippi Gulf Coast in the semifinals and East Central in the championship contest.
The winner of Thursday’s EMCC-PRCC contest will advance to take on the winner of the East Central-Northwest Mississippi matchup Friday at 2 p.m. in semifinal-round action. Thursday’s other opening-round games will pit Itawamba against Jones County at 4 p.m., followed by host and seventh-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast versus Northeast Mississippi at 6 p.m. Friday’s championship contest is slated to begin at 5 p.m. on the MGCCC campus.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 April 2011 )
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.jpg "Image") Former EMCC football standout Joe Rowell, of Citronelle, Ala., was posthumously inducted into the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame during Tuesday’s induction ceremonies in Jackson, Miss.
Rowell is perhaps best known among sports enthusiasts as having the distinction of playing for two of the most storied college football coaches in the history of intercollegiate athletics – Paul “Bear” Bryant and Bob “Bull/Cyclone” Sullivan.
Following Rowell’s standout prep career in football and baseball at Citronelle High School in Alabama, former classmate Coy “Hadacol” Smith persuaded him to attend East Mississippi Junior College and play football. As a freshman for the legendary “Bull” Sullivan in 1952 and the following year for EMJC head coach Roy Knapp, Rowell developed into an all-conference football player and served as a team co-captain for the Lions of Scooba, Miss.
Recruited by then-newly hired “Bear” Bryant to Texas A&M University, Rowell ultimately became one of only 27 players to complete Bryant’s storied 10-day training camp in the summer of 1954. That group of players, which included future NFL head coaches Jack Pardee and Gene Stallings, later were immortalized in the book and ESPN television movie entitled “The Junction Boys”.
After leaving Texas A&M, Rowell returned to Citronelle to resume playing city league baseball for another 15 years. While working at the Courtaulds textile plant in Alabama, he met his wife and married her on home plate during a baseball game in 1957. Following a 15-year career at Courtaulds, Rowell re-opened Citronelle’s oldest restaurant, “Old Glory”, and became a prominent Citronelle business owner for many years.
Rowell was inducted into East Mississippi Community College’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. Having undergone two triple bypass surgeries earlier in life, Rowell died on Feb. 1, 2010 at the age of 76. A lifelong member of New Home Baptist Church in Citronelle, Rowell always supported the local sports programs in his hometown, where he proudly watched his children and grandchildren participate. He is survived by five children, eight grandchildren and five great-grandsons.
“As a family, we are so very proud to accept this tremendous honor on behalf of our father,” said Mary Mears, daughter of the late Joe Rowell. “It makes all of us extremely proud and honored to know that he is still remembered. He was a great man, father and grandfather.”
The Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame was conceived in the interest of recognizing coaches and athletes who have coached and/or played in one or more of Mississippi’s public community or junior colleges. Acknowledging the fact that there have been many outstanding athletes who have contributed greatly to the successful sports programs throughout the two-year college system, the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) began a program of recognition in 2007 whereby individuals may be recognized for their contributions to the tremendous success of community and junior college sports in Mississippi.
This year marks the fifth class of the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame. Rowell joins previously elected EMCC inductees Bob “Bull” Sullivan (2007), Bill Buckner (2007), Clyde “Baby Doll” Pierce (2007), Don Edwards (2008), Ken Waddell Sr. (2008), Elbert “Lum” Wright (2009), and Tom Scarborough (2010).
Other newly elected members honored at the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame during Tuesday’s induction ceremonies in Jackson included: Audrey Williams (Coahoma CC); Bob Ricketts (deceased, Copiah-Lincoln CC); Dr. Clyde Muse (East Central CC); Homer Boyd (Hinds CC); Faye Dillard (Holmes CC); Roy Cresap (Itawamba CC); Louis D. Ready (Jones County JC); Carlton “Corky” Palmer (Meridian CC); Benton White (Mississippi Delta CC); Barbara Sue Ross (Mississippi Gulf Coast CC); Kunshinge S. Howard (Northeast Mississippi CC); Don Randolph (Northwest Mississippi CC); Bobby Weaver (Pearl River CC); and Jerry Reid (Southwest Mississippi CC).
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 April 2011 )
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SENATOBIA – In their final road action of the regular season, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College were swept by Northwest Mississippi, 9-0 and 5-4, Saturday afternoon in MACJC North Division baseball action at Ranger Field. The twinbill was postponed from Friday following heavy rains during the midweek.
Falling to 12-10 in division play but still bidding to earn their first postseason berth since 2004, the 14-27 EMCC Lions will play host to Northeast Mississippi on Saturday (April 30) in a 3 p.m. doubleheader that may possibly decide the division’s fourth and final playoff spot. The Northeast Tigers, 11-9 in league action, will entertain Northwest (15-5 division record) Wednesday in Booneville before heading to Scooba for Saturday’s crucial regular-season finale.
In Saturday’s opener in Senatobia, the visiting Lions once again struggled with Northwest right-hander Garrett Radicioni, who previously pitched a complete-game six-hitter against EMCC last month in Scooba. Hurling another complete game, the freshman from Clarksdale this time limited the visitors to just three singles in raising his record to 5-2 on the year. Radicioni struck out six batters and did not issue a walk while throwing 84 pitches for the Rangers.
Northwest tagged EMCC starter Will Edwards (1-5) for four runs on four hits in the first inning to give Radicioni all the run support he would need in the opener. The Rangers tacked on two additional runs in the second and added three more tallies in the fourth off Lions middle reliever Lance Portera, though only one of the five runs was earned.
The Lions’ trio of hits in the opening contest came on Tyler Aldridge’s leadoff single in the fourth, a sixth-inning bunt single by Aaron Brady, and Rusty McAlister’s pinch-hit single in the final frame.
In the closely-contested nightcap, the two teams traded two-run spots in the opening frame. EMCC sophomore Mitch Bohon’s two-run blast to left field – his team-leading sixth home run of the year – was matched by Drew Griffin’s two-out, two-run double.
The Rangers answered EMCC’s unearned run in the third inning with three unearned runs of their own in the fourth off Lions middle reliever Cole Vaughan (0-3), who came in for starter Kameron Heiser in the third. A former West Lauderdale product, Heiser gave up two runs on four hits while making his first start on the mound since having an appendectomy a month ago.
Following scoreless fifth and sixth innings, the Lions greeted Northwest closer Jimmy Braswell with a hit-by-pitch by Aldridge and an opposite-field double by Alex Chick. With runners on second and third with no outs, the Rangers brought in Griffin to face the heart of the EMCC lineup. Bohon promptly grounded out to third base, scoring Aldridge, but Chick was thrown out attempting to advance to third base. With the bases now empty and two outs after the double play, Tyler Bonaventure flied out to left field to end the contest.
Freshman Ismael Reyes had two of EMCC’s seven hits in the second game. Aldridge added a fourth-inning double, while Brett Tortorich had a single in the first and Connor Cox reached on an infield hit in the third.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 23 April 2011 )
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