The Southwest Mississippi Community College softball team made program history tieing its highest win total in school history at 22 with a sweep at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia on Friday.
The Lady Bears (22-16, 15-9) won 4-3 and 10-1 and earned their first-ever trip to the upcoming state playoffs.
“It is very exciting to go into unchartered waters,” Lady Bears head coach Shea Johnson said. “I am very proud of the girls for getting to this point. They have worked very hard and their effort has been great.”
The Lady Bears took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first in game one when McKenzie Brock and Jessie Penton both singled and scored on Austin Pruitt’s double to left field. But, the lead was short-lived as Northwest used three singles to tie things at 2-2 in the bottom of the frame.
Both teams scored a run in the fifth inning to put the score at 3-3. The Lady Bears’ run came on a Penton single and Pruitt’s double to centerfield, her third hit of the game.
The winning run crossed the plate for the Lady Bears in the top of the sixth when Jenna Duff doubled to centerfield and scored on Kelcey Bremenkamp’s second hit of the game.
Northwest put runners on base in their half of the sixth and seventh innings, but were unable to produce any runs.
Macy Fulton picked up the complete-game win in the circle for the Lady Bears, surrendering three runs — two earned — on nine hits. She struck out one batter. Jana McEwen had a single in the game.
The first of two Brock singles and a two-out single by Duff put the Lady Bears up 1-0 in the first inning in the finale. They made it 3-0 in the second when Bremenkamp walked, McEwen reached on an error and both scored on another error.
The first of Penton’s two hits, Duff’s double and an error resulted in three more runs, and a 6-0 lead, for the Lady Bears in their half of the fifth. They then scored four additional runs in the top of the seventh, two coming of Duff’s line-drive homer to left, to increase their lead to 10-0.
A double, single and error allowed Northwest to score a run in the bottom of the seventh and avoid the shutout.
Rebecca Davis pitched the full seven innings, giving up an unearned run on seven hits and a walk, to get the win for the Lady Bears. She struck out two batters. Pruitt had two hits in the game.
As the Lady Bears’ historic regular season winds down and the playoffs draw near, Johnson said his team is “going to continue to take it one inning and one game at a time.”
He also said assistant coaches Maggie Jackson and Greg Gatlin have done an outstanding job.
The Lady Bears return to action Wednesday when they host the Lady Warriors of East Central in a 1 p.m. doubleheader. East Central is currently ranked fourth in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
