2015

ECCC Lady Warriors fall one game short ~

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East Central Community College needed just one win in the National Junior College Athletic Association Region 23 Tournament on Saturday, May 9, but the Lady Diamond Warriors were swept by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College 4-3 and 2-0. Gulf Coast is the 2015 Region 23 Champion, and ECCC is runner-up. The NJCAA Region 23 Tournament was played at Community Bank Park on the campus of Jones County Junior College in Ellisville. ECCC had already quali– fied for a berth in the 2015 NJCAA Division II Softball Championship Series by virtue of its 4-3 win over No. 1 LSU-Eunice on Thursday and a 1-0, extra-inning win over No. 2 Jones County on Friday in the Region 23 Tournament. The national championship series will be played May 13-16 at Traceway Park in Clinton. Gulf Coast will be the other

NJCAA Region 23 represen– tative in Clinton. Brackets have not been announced. ECCC and Gulf Coast are no strangers on the softball diamond , having now met eight times this season. The Lady Diamond Warriors would strike first in game one with two runs in the top of the first inning on a sin– gle by Mallory Turner ofWest Lauderdale High School, a sacrifice bunt by Maegen Ellis of Oak Hill Academy in West Point, a single by Mahalia Gibson of Oak Grove High School, a Gulf Coast error, and a ground ball fielder's choice by Caitlyn Aldous of Petal High School. ECCC plated another run in the bottom of the third on singles by Ellis and Gibson and a ground ball fielder's choice by Andi Hannaford of Magnolia Heights School in Senatobia. ECCC freshman pitcher Lacey Hill dido't give up a hit until the bottom of the fourth,

when the Lady Bulldogs picked up three hits including a grand slam home run by Alyssa Hardy that gave Gulf Coast a 4-3 lead. The Lady Diamond Warriors threatened in the top of the seventh with a runnet on second and only one out: but were unable to produce the tying run. · Hill, a product ot Kilbourne (La.) High School; took the loss, giving up onlY. three hits. ECCC had seven hits in game one. ' The Lady Bulldogs would take an early 2-0 lead in th~ bottom of the first inning·, with four hits off of the usual:, ly dominant ECCC freshman pitcher Chloe Thaggard of Leake Academy. Gulf Coast made those two runs count as they held on for the 2-0 win. Lady Bulldogs pitcher Paige Breal held ECCC to just one hit. ·~ Thaggard took the loss for East Central, giving up nin~ hits over six innings.

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CARTHAGINIAN

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MERIDIAN STAR

CLARION-LEDGER

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