EMCC Lions sweep Coastal Alabama-North in first softball road action of the season

MONROEVILLE, Ala. – East Mississippi Community College's softball team went on the road for the first time this season and came away with 6-2 and 7-2 victories over Coastal Alabama-North this past Saturday afternoon.

In the opening game, the Lions took an early 3-0 lead with a trio of two-out runs in the top of the first inning. A run-scoring double by Savannah Fralix was followed two batters later by Savannah Mitchell's two-run single.

EMCC starting pitcher Allee Bennett kept the Coyotes in check through the opening three frames before surrendering a pair of unearned runs following Synya Edwards' one-out triple in the fourth inning.

The visitors quickly got those two runs back in their next at-bat following successive singles from pinch-hitter Hanna Boleware and Raven Ramsey to open the fifth frame. EMCC added an insurance run in the seventh inning on Olivia Saucier's RBI double.

Offensively, Fralix, Mitchell, Saucier and Ramsey had two hits apiece to lead the Lions' 11-hit team effort in the opening contest.

Bennett, a sophomore from Perkinston, scattered six hits over four innings to pick up her first victory this season. Freshman Reese Edwards, out of Pell City, Ala., picked up her first collegiate save by throwing three scoreless frames to close out the victory.

In the nightcap, Coastal Alabama-North held a pair of early one-run leads until the Lions scored two runs during each of the final three innings to pull away in the contest. The Coyotes first went up 1-0 on Alissa Holmes' two-out, run-producing double in the second inning.

The teams traded solo runs the following frame. Consecutive two-out doubles from Madison Newburn and Fralix briefly knotted the score at 1-1 in the top of the third before Coastal Alabama-North plated an unearned run in the home half of the inning to move back on top 2-1.

The Lions went back to work offensively during the latter stages of the game to secure the road doubleheader sweep. Mitchell, EMCC's starting pitcher in the nightcap, helped herself with the bat in addition to tossing the complete-game victory. The California native by way of Northeast Mississippi Community College capped a two-run fifth inning with a two-out RBI single and then started a two-run seventh frame with a home run. EMCC also pushed across a pair of runs in the sixth inning with the aid of three walks and an infield error by the Coyotes.

Mitchell was joined by Fralix, Saucier and Boleware to give the Lions four batters with two hits apiece in the second game as well. In the circle, Mitchell allowed six hits with four strikeouts and no walks over seven innings to improve to 2-0 on the young season.

Head coach Mackenzie Byrd's 3-1 EMCC Lions will play host to Shelton State in a 1 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 10) doubleheader on the Scooba campus. They are then slated to close out the week's softball action with a Thursday (Feb. 12) rematch twin bill at Marion Military Institute in Marion, Ala.