| EMCC Lady Lions manage midweek softball road split with Hinds |
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RAYMOND – The East Mississippi Community College softball team used a 16-hit attack to claim an 11-4 road victory over Hinds in the first game of a Wednesday doubleheader played at Rene Warren Field. The Lady Lions let a potential doubleheader sweep slip away in the nightcap by surrendering four runs in the final inning of a 9-8 setback.
In the opener, sophomore shortstop Mallory Pace keyed EMCC’s offensive effort by going 4-for-5 at the plate with five runs batted in and two runs scored. The former Northeast Lauderdale standout got things started in the first with a two-run, inside-the-park home run to right-center field off Hinds starter Rudi Aycock. Pace added doubles in the fifth and sixth innings, while capping the Lady Lions’ game-clinching, five-run seventh with a two-run single. With two more runs in the fifth inning sandwiched by solo tallies in the third and sixth frames, the Lady Lions also received multi-hit outings from four other players in the first contest. Former Clarkdale High School standouts Jessie Clark and Cory Roberson had three and two hits, respectively, while Southeast Lauderdale product Lainie Simcox and Neshoba Central’s Leigh Ellen Barefield added two hits apiece. Freshman right-hander Amy Johnson, of Starks, La., earned the complete-game victory for East Mississippi in the opening contest. In the nightcap, the visitors held a 6-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth and still maintained an 8-5 advantage going into the final inning. The home-standing Lady Eagles reached EMCC reliever Alex Dawkins for three straight singles to begin the seventh. Johnson came in to attempt to halt the rally, but Hinds’ comeback attempt couldn’t be denied. Offensively in the second game for the Lady Lions, Barefield went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Getting a start in the outfield, freshman Paige Sheppard, of Southeast Lauderdale, responded with a 2-for-4 outing, including a two-run double in the first inning and a two-run single in the sixth. Clark and Courtney Castleberry, another Clarkdale product, each added a pair of singles in the nightcap. After traveling to Ellisville for three Saturday games at the Jones County-hosted Gwen Magee Invitational, head coach Kate Neely’s EMCC Lady Lions will begin a three-date homestand with a Monday doubleheader rematch against Hinds beginning at 2 p.m. on the Scooba campus. Currently 1-3 on the year, EMCC is also slated to entertain preseason 12th-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast on Thursday (Feb. 24) as well as 10th-ranked Copiah-Lincoln the following Monday (Feb. 28). |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 February 2011 ) |
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