The final home games of the regular season ended well for the Southwest Mississippi Community College Lady Bears’ softball team Friday, as they swept rival Copiah-Lincoln 5-3 and 8-1.
The Lady Bears improved to 22-18 on the season and at 11-11, remained in the thick of the playoff chase in the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges South Division.
“We just took charge,” Southwest head coach Patsy Sandifer said. “We tried to relax and let the girls play their game, and they did. We put runners on base and brought them around.”
In Game 1, Co-Lin used four hits, a walk and a Lady Bears error to take a 2-0 lead.
Southwest then scored three in the bottom of the second and never looked back.
In the second inning, Maggie Dunaway walked and Hali Sasser and Christina Hollins-Campbell were both hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs. An error allowed two runs to score before Hollins-Campbell scored on a passed ball.
A Dunaway solo home run in the third inning made it 4-1. Chasidy Prescott scored Southwest’s final run in the sixth inning on Roxanne Lock’s RBI single. Prescott was on base as a courtesy runner.
Co-Lin scored once in the top of the seventh, but came no closer.
Lady Bears’ freshman pitcher Ashlyn Grisaffe picked up the win. The right-hander threw a complete game, struck out seven and walked five.
Nikki Foster, Maggie Jackson and Kaitlyn Perry all hit safely for the Lady Bears.
In the finale, a leadoff homer from Perry put Southwest on top 1-0. Co-Lin tied the game at 1 in the top of the second with a single and double.
The Lady Bears regained the lead in their half of the third inning, 3-1, when Jackson smashed a two-run homer. Lock, who had struck out but reached base on a passed ball, scored ahead of Jackson.
Jackson again provided the power in the fourth inning. She hit a two-run double to score Perry and Lock and build the Lady Bears’ lead to 5-1. Southwest’s final runs came in the fifth inning on a bases-loaded walk to Jackson and a run-scoring single from Lindsay Clark.
