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The East Mississippi softball team opened the 2010 season by splitting a home doubleheader with two-time defending state champion Copiah-Lincoln Wednesday afternoon on the Scooba campus. The Lady Lions will next play host to Pearl River on Tuesday, Feb. 16 with a doubleheader set to begin at 4 p.m. at the EMCC Softball Field.
Featuring seven freshmen in the starting lineup, the Lady Lions took the early lead in the opener on Mallory Pace’s two-out, first-inning single that plated DeShuni Sanders. EMCC widened its lead to 5-0 with a four-run fifth inning. Freshman Mercedes Cotton, a former Choctaw Central standout, started the rally with a home run to right-center field off Co-Lin starter Bethany Pinkston. Following Sanders’ run-scoring single, Celeste Fontenot’s booted dribbler down the first baseline brought across a pair of unearned runs.
The visiting Lady Wolves cut into EMCC’s lead with a three-run sixth inning. Third baseman Holli Smith reached EMCC starter Courtney Nunn with a lead-off home run to straightaway center field. After the next two hitters reached base safely, Casey Risher’s RBI double and a sacrifice fly by DeeDee Walker trimmed the deficit to 5-3.
In the home half of the sixth, Leigh Ellen Barefield’s run-producing single down the third baseline brought home courtesy runner Whitney Sumrall to give the Lady Lions an insurance run and seal the 6-3 victory.
A sophomore from Jonesboro, La., Nunn gave up six hits, while striking out five and walking four, in going the distance to pick up the win for the Lady Lions in the opener. With Pinkston taking the loss, despite striking out 10 EMCC batters, the Lady Wolves were slowed in the first game by leaving nine runners on base, including seven left in scoring position.
Co-Lin bounced back in the nightcap, taking an early 2-0 in the opening frame. Highlighted by Walker’s bases-clearing double in the fourth inning, the Lady Wolves took a 5-0 lead before EMCC could get on the scoreboard in the second contest.
While the Lady Lions were putting up solo tallies in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, the visitors were stretching their advantage with multiple runs during each of the final three frames. After plating three runs in the fourth and two more an inning later, Co-Lin put the contest out of reach with four successive run-scoring hits in the sixth.
Aided by 13 Co-Lin hits in the nightcap, Pinkston evened her day’s ledger by surrendering just four EMCC hits and striking out six en route to the complete-game victory. Though working just the first two innings of game two before giving way to Cotton, Nunn took the loss for the home-standing Lady Lions.
Head coach Kate Neely’s 1-1 East Mississippi softball squad stays at home to entertain Pearl River on Tuesday, Feb. 16. Doubleheader action is set to begin at 4 p.m. on the EMCC Softball Field.