.jpg "Image") The third-seeded EMCC Lady Lions begin play at this weekend’s MACJC State Softball Tournament by taking on Mississippi Gulf Coast Friday evening at 6 p.m. in Wesson.
The two-day, single-elimination tournament will be hosted by Copiah-Lincoln Community College.
Making the school’s first softball appearance in the state tournament since 2002, head coach Kate Neely’s 2009 Lady Lions enter postseason play sporting a 24-22 overall record, including Wednesday’s sweep at Hinds (6-3 & 10-1) and Monday’s tripleheader divisional home sweep of Mississippi Delta (3-0, 15-0 & 6-5). EMCC gained the No. 3 seed in this weekend’s tourney by finishing third in the MACJC’s North Division standings with a 15-9 league mark. Northwest Mississippi and Itawamba earned the North’s first and second seeds, respectively.
The winner of Friday’s EMCC-MGCCC contest will advance to meet the winner of the Northwest-East Central game Saturday at 2 p.m. The championship game will follow at 4 p.m. Along with ICC and host Co-Lin, Pearl River and Northeast Mississippi round out the other bracket.
Offensively at the plate, East Mississippi is led by sophomore first baseman Josie Matthews of Meridian. The former West Lauderdale High School standout is hitting a team-best .361 on the year and shares the club lead with four home runs, including a two-homer outing in her home finale against Delta earlier this week.
Sophomore shortstop Summer Frost follows with a .353 batting average for the Lady Lions. The East Webster product leads the club with 34 runs scored and a dozen doubles for the season.
Perhaps the hottest hitter down the stretch for EMCC has been sophomore outfielder Regan Shows of Beaumont. The former Perry Central standout by way of Jones County Junior College has raised her season’s average to .329 and shares the club lead with four round-trippers on the year.
Also over the .300 mark on the year are freshman catcher Alex Shelton of West Point and freshman infielder Linsey Upton of New Hope at .318 and .309, respectively. Along with having scored 32 runs for the season, Shelton tops EMCC with 16 stolen bases.
On the mound, the Lady Lions are paced by the starting tandem of sophomore Brooke Lee and freshman Courtney Nunn. One of four West Lauderdale products on the squad, Lee owns a 12-5 record on the year with a 2.96 earned run average. A multi-position player, she is also hitting .324 while having played second base and left field this season.
Hailing from Jonesboro, La., Nunn is 10-12 with 152 strikeouts and a 2.52 ERA in her first year for East Mississippi. The right-hander ranks among the nation’s top 20 leaders in averaging better than a strikeout per inning.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 April 2009 )
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.jpg "Image") Meridian High School’s Shakari Stribling has become the 10th softball signee of the spring for EMCC head coach Kate Neely’s MACJC State Tournament-bound Lady Lions.
A 5-foot-7 first baseman/third baseman, Stribling hit .257 this past fast-pitch season for head coach Susan Frazier’s 7-11 Division 5-5A runners-up. The defensive standout also compiled a .967 fielding percentage playing primarily at first base.
Last fall in her final slow-pitch campaign for MHS, Stribling batted .437 and fielded at a .988 clip in helping lead the 21-13 Lady Wildcats to the Class 5A South State championship and state runner-up finish for the second consecutive year.
During her junior slow-pitch season, Stribling hit .303 with 20 runs batted in as a member of Meridian’s state runner-up ballclub. Having competed in varsity softball since the ninth grade, she has also participated in the State Games of Mississippi.
An active member of the Boys & Girls Club of Lauderdale County, Stribling is the daughter of Willie Hart and Phyllis Stribling of Meridian.
Stribling joins previously announced EMCC softball signees Leigh Ellen Barefield (Neshoba Central HS), Megan Ladner (Poplarville HS), Chelsea Theriot (Poplarville HS), DeShuni Sanders (Hew Hope HS), Mallory Pace (Northeast Lauderdale HS), Justine Jenkins (Caledonia HS), Katie Newman (Oak Hill Academy), Courtney Castleberry (Clarkdale HS), and Celeste Fontenot (Brusly [La.] HS).
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 April 2009 )
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.jpg "Image") Greenville-Weston teammates Ebone’ Gaskin and Avraya Sharkey will continue their athletic and academic careers together as soccer teammates at East Mississippi Community College.
A 5-foot-6 midfielder/defender, Gaskin was a two-year starter for head coach Jessie McKenzie’s Greenville-Weston club. Having played competitive soccer for the past nine years, Gaskin has been selected as the recipient of this year’s Best Defensive Player Award for the GWHS Honeybees.
Sharkey, a 5-foot-4 midfielder, teamed with Gaskin on this year’s 3-9 Greenville-Weston squad. She has also served as a baseball manager at the high school.
Gaskin and Sharkey join previously announced EMCC women’s soccer signees Nichola Crenshaw of Meridian High School and India Whittle of Neshoba Central High School.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 April 2009 )
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.jpg "Image") Led by Cody Pounders (left) and Derek Beach, the EMCC pitching staff limited visiting Holmes to just one run on only 11 total hits in sweeping the Bulldogs, 1-0 and 2-1, Tuesday afternoon in the Lions’ final home action of the 2009 baseball campaign.
The doubleheader sweep of the Bulldogs marked EMCC’s second double-dip of the season, having also swept Coahoma (9-2 & 11-5) in Scooba exactly one month ago to the date.
In Tuesday’s opener against Holmes, freshman southpaw Derek Beach of Heidelberg scattered five hits over seven innings to move to 4-3 on the year. The former Heidelberg Academy standout struck out three and did not issue a walk en route to the complete-game shutout.
While Beach and the Lion defense did not allow an HCC runner into scoring position through the first four innings, EMCC was able to plate the game’s lone tally in its half of the fourth. Following back-to-back singles by David Williams and Zane Cradic, Hickory’s Brandon Williams’ sacrifice fly accounted for the game’s lone run.
The Bulldogs were able to mount a pair of two-out threats late in the contest, but Beach worked through a fifth-inning triple by Michael Pounds and a double the following frame by Cameron White. Working through a steady drizzle during most of the first game, Beach capped his impressive pitching effort by picking off his second base runner of the contest at first base to end the game.
After the chilly rain blew out of the Scooba area between games, the EMCC pitching stayed hot under blue skies during the nightcap. Lion starter Tyler Richardson, a West Lauderdale product, allowed just two singles and struck out four through the first three innings before giving way to Cody Pounders.
Leadoff batter Luke Walker, also of West Lauderdale fame, opened the second contest with an opposite-field single for the Lions. After advancing two bases on a botched pickoff attempt at first base, Beach got the run home with a groundout to second base.
In relief of Richardson, Pounders was greeted in the fourth inning with a double down the left-field line by Ben Hodge. Following the Lions’ unsuccessful attempt to complete a rundown play on a pickoff try at second base, Hodge later came around to tie the score on Jordan Brewer’s two-out single.
EMCC immediately got the eventual deciding run back in the home half of the fourth on successive singles by Josh Rone, Cradic and Drew Vaughan at the start of the inning. Amory’s Rone and Cradic, a Northeast Lauderdale product, had a pair of hits apiece in the second game.
A former standout at New Hope High School, Pounders nailed down his first collegiate victory in three decisions on the year by allowing just two singles over the final three frames. Like the opening contest, the Lions completed the sweep with a defensive gem by turning a game-ending double play.
Head coach Tony Montgomery’s EMCC Lions, now 11-35 overall on the year and 6-15 in North Division action, conclude their 2009 baseball campaign with a Saturday afternoon twin bill at divisional foe Mississippi Delta.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 22 April 2009 )
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.jpg "Image") During ‘Sophomore Day’ festivities Monday afternoon on the Scooba campus, the Lady Lion softball team claimed a tripleheader sweep of Mississippi Delta (3-0, 15-0 & 6-5) to earn the North Division’s No. 3 seed in this weekend’s MACJC State Softball Tournament in Wesson.
With Monday’s tripleheader sweep, plus the acquisition of another victory due to an earlier intentional forfeiture by Delta against Itawamba, head coach Kate Neely’s Lady Lions improved to .500 overall on the year at 22-22 and 15-9 in North Division play. Seeded third in the North Division behind top-seeded Northwest Mississippi and Itawamba, EMCC will begin competition Friday at the MACJC State Tournament by playing second-seeded Mississippi Gulf Coast of the South Division at 6 p.m. The two-day, single-elimination tournament is being hosted by Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Wesson.
After out-hitting Mississippi Delta a combined 23-8 during Monday’s 3-0 and 15-0 shutout victories, the Lady Lions made a two-homer outing by former West Lauderdale standout Josie Matthews and a three-run triple by West Point’s Alex Shelton stand up in clinging to a 6-5 nightcap victory despite a seventh-inning rally by the visitors. With EMCC leading, 6-3, after a five-run fourth inning courtesy of Matthews’ two-run blast and Shelton’s bases-loaded three-bagger, Delta pinch hitter Lindsey Serio blasted a one-out solo home run to left. After Lauren Lott reached base on a fielding error and advanced to third on a throwing error from the outfield, pinch hitter Anna Melton pulled the Lady Trojans to within a run with an RBI single to left. However, Melton was thrown out at second base trying to get into scoring position on the play. EMCC starter Brooke Lee, now 11-5 on the year, preserved her second complete-game victory of the afternoon by retiring Callie Gordon on a tap back to the mound.
A product of West Lauderdale High School, Lee scattered nine hits over seven innings, while striking out 11 and walking a pair, in the nightcap. In Monday’s middle contest, the sophomore right-hander gave up just three singles and didn’t walk a batter over five innings to go along with her three strikeouts.
Offensively, the Lady Lions banged out 17 hits in Monday’s second contest, including five straight two-out singles during a four-run third inning. The following frame, the first seven EMCC hitters all reached base and later scored to account for the 15-0 run-rule outcome.
East Webster product Summer Frost went 4-for-4 with three runs scored in Game 2, while former West Point standout Angel Little enjoyed a 3-for-3 outing with three runs scored and four runs batted in. Shelton, also of West Point, knocked in four runs as well in the middle game with a pair of two-run singles.
EMCC freshman right-hander Courtney Nunn, of Jonesboro, La., opened the afternoon with a five-hit shutout in the first contest. With the Lady Lions plating solo runs in the first, third and fourth innings of the opener, Nunn raised her record to 10-12 on the season by striking out seven and allowing but one walk.
In preparation for this weekend’s state tournament action, the Lady Lions will close out the regular season by playing a non-divisional doubleheader Wednesday afternoon at Hinds.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 April 2009 )
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