EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - EMCC sweeps Northeast with pair of 9-1 wins in softball league opener

SCOOBA –- Keyed by clutch two-out hitting, the East Mississippi softball team opened MACJC North Division play with a pair of 9-1 home victories over Northeast Mississippi Thursday afternoon on the Scooba campus.

With all but two of their 18 runs on the afternoon coming with two outs, head coach Kate Neely’s EMCC Lady Lions totaled 19 hits for the two mercy rule-shortened games. Solid starting pitching by sophomore Courtney Nunn in the opener and freshman Mercedes Cotton in the nightcap limited the visiting Lady Tigers to eight combined hits.

In the first game, East Mississippi scored in every inning, beginning with a pair of runs in the opening two frames. Following two groundouts to begin the first inning, freshman shortstop Celeste Fontenot singled to left and came home on Mallory Pace’s first collegiate home run. Pace, a former standout at Northeast Lauderdale, led the Lady Lions with five hits on the day, including a 3-for-3 first game with three runs batted in and two runs scored.

Fontenot and Pace added back-to-back, run-scoring singles with two outs in the second to give the home team a 4-0 lead. The Lady Lions followed with solo unearned tallies in the third, fourth and fifth innings, before two more EMCC runs in the sixth ended play nearly two hours into the contest. Fontenot, from Baton Rouge, went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored in the opener.

On the mound, Nunn picked up her third win of the campaign, allowing just three singles with eight strikeouts and two walks in six innings of work. The right-hander faced just one more than the minimum through the first four innings, before being reached for an RBI-single by Shardae Ward in the sixth.

In the nightcap, EMCC struck early with four runs in the opening frame. Again with two outs and two runners on base, freshman Cayla Coleman blooped a two-run single to right. In her second outing since recently finishing out her rookie basketball season, freshman Nashedra Barry of Columbus blasted a run-scoring triple off the right-field fence and scored on an errant throw from the outfield.

With Cotton and Nunn combining to limit Northeast to five singles over five innings, the Lady Lions plated five more runs in the fourth with two down to claim their second 9-1 run-rule decision of the day. The Lady Tigers’ lone score of the second game came on an RBI-single in the third by Devin Reader.

Pace and Coleman both went 2-for-3 in the nightcap, while five other Lady Lions each added solo safeties. Coleman, from Clarkdale High School, drove home three runs and scored another in the second game.

A freshman right-hander from Choctaw Central, Cotton went 3.1 innings, with two strikeouts and a pair of walks, to pick up her first collegiate victory. Nunn came in to get the final five outs to secure the doubleheader sweep.

The 4-19 EMCC Lady Lions continue divisional play by playing a Saturday doubleheader at Coahoma.