| Hot-hitting EMCC Lady Lions improve to 8-1 in division play with home softball sweep over Delta |
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SCOOBA – Pounding out 33 hits on the day, the hot-hitting Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College swept visiting Mississippi Delta in a pair of run-ruled contests, 11-3 and 10-2, Saturday afternoon at the EMCC Softball Field.
Stretching their league-leading record to 8-1 in MACJC North Division play, head coach Kate Neely’s EMCC Lady Lions followed an 18-hit performance in the opening game against Delta with a 15-hit effort in the nightcap. In the circle, freshman Amy Johnson raised her pitching record to 9-7 on the year in earning a pair of complete-game victories. In the first contest, the visiting Lady Trojans grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run home run by Alaina Burns. EMCC came back with a pair of runs in the second on a Lainie Simcox line drive home run down the left-field line and a run-scoring bloop single by Courtney Castleberry later in the inning. The solo homer was Simcox’s team-leading third round-tripper of the campaign. With the score tied at 3-3, the Lady Lions moved ahead 5-3 with two scores in the fifth and then put the opener out of reach an inning later by batting around for six runs on six hits in the sixth. Everyone in EMCC’s batting order had at least one hit in the opener, including five players with multiple-hit outings. Freshman Paige Sheppard, of Meridian’s Southeast Lauderdale High School, led the way with a 4-for-4 effort with two runs batted in and two runs scored. Simcox and Castleberry added three hits apiece for the home team. In the nightcap, the Lady Lions set the tone with five runs on seven hits in the opening frame while sending 11 batters to the plate. While Delta was managing just solo tallies in the second and third innings, EMCC plated two runs in the second, one in the third and added two more in the fourth to account for the day’s second straight eight-run margin of victory. With Simcox sparking the hit parade in game two with another 3-for-3 showing at the plate, the Lady Lions had seven different players with at least two hits apiece in the nightcap. A freshman third baseman from Southeast Lauderdale High School, Simcox was 6-for-6 on the day with six runs scored and two RBI. Sheppard also finished with six hits on the day while knocking in four runs and scoring four runs as well. Castleberry and sophomore DeShuni Sanders, a former New Hope High School product, added five and four hits, respectively, during the twinbill sweep. A first-year right-hander from Starks, La., Johnson scattered 13 hits – seven in the opener and six in the nightcap - over 11 innings of work during her doubleheader stint. She also fanned a total of seven batters and issued but one walk on the afternoon. Improving to 10-14 overall on the season, the EMCC Lady Lions will step out of the division to play host to Southwest Tennessee CC Monday (March 28) in a doubleheader set to begin at 3 p.m. on the Scooba campus. East Mississippi then hits the road the rest of the week by first resuming division play Wednesday at Itawamba in a 3 p.m. doubleheader. A single game at Northeast Mississippi, postponed from a previously scheduled doubleheader due to rain, follows on Thursday, before the Lady Lions continue on the road for a Saturday (April 2) twinbill at Northwest Mississippi. |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 26 March 2011 ) |
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