| EMCC Lady Lions earn home softball split with Holmes |
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.jpg "Image") Former West Lauderdale High School teammates Josie Matthews (left) and Brooke Lee combined for eight hits in EMCC’s softball doubleheader split against Holmes Thursday afternoon on the Scooba campus. The Lady Lions had their eight-game home winning streak snapped in the opener by dropping a 5-4 extra-inning decision to the visiting Lady Bulldogs. In Thursday’s second contest of a twin bill postponed one day because of rain and wet field conditions, former West Lauderdale High School standout Josie Matthews capped a 3-for-3 outing with an RBI single in the fifth inning that would hold up for the final margin. The Lady Bulldogs did not go quietly, however, in their bid for a sweep. With the Lady Lions leading, 4-2, heading into the final inning, EMCC starter Brooke Lee left the game after facing two batters in the seventh. First-game starter Courtney Nunn came in to strike out Jessie Allred, but allowed a two-out, run-scoring single to Becca Carter to make it a one-run contest. Holmes’ Chelsea Raines, who homered in the first game, flied out to right field to end the late rally. After Holmes took an early 1-0 lead in the first frame of the nightcap, EMCC shortstop Summer Frost of Maben put the home team in front, 2-1, with a two-out, two-run single in the second. The visitors answered with a solo tally in the third, but Matthews put the Lady Lions back in the lead in the home half of the third by driving home Lee, a former West Lauderdale teammate, with a double to left. On the mound, Lee upped her record to 5-4 on the year by giving up six hits, while striking out two and walking a pair, in 6 1/3 innings of work. At the plate, Lee went 4-for-7 on the day, including 2-for-3 in the second game, with three stolen bases and two runs scored. In Thursday’s opener, Matthews’ RBI single in the second inning was matched by Raines’ solo home run in the sixth to send the game into a tiebreaker. After the two teams traded solos scores in the first extra frame, Holmes reached Nunn for three runs in the top of the ninth on a two-out, two-run double by Courtney Rhodes followed by an RBI single by Kim Commer. The Lady Lions made it interesting in the bottom half of the ninth when pinch hitter Mauri McBride drove home Regan Shows to trim the deficit to 5-3. Down to its final out, East Mississippi received new life when Holmes’ Rhodes dropped Alex Shelton’s potential game-ending pop-up at second base, allowing McBride to scamper in with EMCC’s fourth run of the contest. However, Lady Bulldog starter Chelsea McCafferty got pinch hitter Jessica Vick to foul out to first base to preserve her complete-game victory. A freshman from Jonesboro, La., Nunn dropped to 6-8 on the year as the tough-luck loser for the Lady Lions. The right-hander went the distance in the opener, scattering six hits while striking out 15 batters and walking just two over nine innings. Frost, formerly of East Webster High School, and Linsey Upton, of Columbus’ New Hope High School, each had a pair of hits for EMCC in Thursday’s first game. Head coach Kate Neely’s Lady Lions, now 11-15 overall and 5-3 in North Division play, travel to Moorhead to meet Mississippi Delta in a Saturday divisional twin bill beginning at 1 p.m. |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 27 March 2009 ) |
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