EMCC opens softball season with home doubleheader split against Marion Military Institute

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College opened the 2026 softball season by earning a home split against Marion Military Institute during Tuesday's soggy doubleheader played at the EMCC Softball Field on the Scooba campus.

Rebounding from a 15-5 setback to MMI in the opener, the Lions bounced back to claim the nightcap, 6-5, in walk-off fashion as field conditions worsened with steady drizzle throughout the afternoon.

In the second game, EMCC grabbed an early 5-2 lead through three innings on a pair of home runs. Sophomore Savannah Fralix's three-run shot in the opening frame – her first collegiate homer – was followed an inning later by fellow sophomore Madison Newburn's two-run blast.

In between the two EMCC homers, the Lady Tigers got on the board with a pair of runs off EMCC starting pitcher Allee Bennett in the top of the second inning. The visitors then knotted the score at 5-5 with three more runs in the fourth frame.

As rain continued to fall and playing conditions deteriorated, the coaches and umpiring crew agreed to halt play after five innings. Following a leadoff MMI walk in the top of the fifth, EMCC left-hander Savannah Mitchell replaced Bennett in the circle and promptly induced a double-play grounder that was turned unassisted by freshman shortstop Devin Bourgeois, who then snared a line drive for the third out.

In the home half of the fifth, Bourgeois came up big offensively with a two-out, bases-loaded hit to left field that drove home Annagrace Stewart with the winning run. Stewart started EMCC's two-out rally by getting hit by a pitch, as did RaMiyah Price. Raven Ramsey loaded the bases by reaching first on an infield error to set up Bourgeois' game-winner.

In the opening game, the home-standing Lions grabbed a pair of early one-run leads before Marion Military gained control of the contest by scoring at least one run in all but one of the seven innings, including five multi-run frames. EMCC got things started with four consecutive singles during each of the first two innings off MMI starting pitcher Haylie Lee that produced a run in the opening frame and three more scores an inning later.  

After bouncing back from two early one-run deficits by scoring three runs in both the second and third innings off EMCC starting pitcher Reese Edwards, the Lady Tigers outscored EMCC, 9-1, over the game's final four innings to earn the 10-run victory. MMI's 16-hit attack was bolstered by home runs from Destiny Brashears, Nichole Dockery and Abigail Phillips.

For the Lions in the opening game, Fralix, Newburn, Bourgeois, Mitchell, Ramsey as well as Olivia Saucier all had two hits apiece to pace EMCC's 14-hit team effort. Freshman Hanna Boleware made her EMCC debut by smacking a pinch-hit home run in the fifth inning during her initial collegiate plate appearance.

Coach Mackenzie Byrd's EMCC Lions will hit the road for the first time this season by taking on Coastal Alabama-North during Saturday's (Feb. 7) noon doubleheader in Monroeville. EMCC is slated to return home to play host to Shelton State on Tuesday (Feb. 10) in a 1 p.m. twin bill on the Scooba campus.