SCOOBA — Wednesday’s softball doubleheader between homestanding East Mississippi and Meridian Community College was eerily similar to the baseball twinbill the two schools played Tuesday.

Game 1 of the afternoon set was a pitcher’s duel, while Meridian came out swinging the sticks in Game 2. The difference? Wednesday, it was MCC which came out on top in both games.

Emily Howard outdueled Nicole Lanthier in a 2-1 Meridian win in the opener, then the Lady Eagles banged out 18 hits in a 13-2 win in the nightcap of the MACJC Central Division twinbill.

“Hitting is contagious,” MCC coach Robert Eakins said. “And after we got some hits to fall in that second game, we started swinging the bats a little better.”

The sweep improved MCC to 13-19 overall, but 3-1 in division play. EMCC fell to 7-21 and 2-4.

Howard (11-10) scattered five hits and struck out three in the opener, when the Lady Eagles scrambled for two runs in the sixth inning to take the come-from-behind win.

But the former Clarkdale standout didn’t need that performance in the second game, when the Lady Eagles had five-run innings in the third and sixth frames in a rout-shortened contest.

“My hats off to them,” Eakins said of EMCC and Lanthier. “She did a good job of controlling her pitches in that first game. I just think she got a little tired in that second game and some balls started falling for us.”

In the opener, former Union standout Amechia Hickmon led off the second inning with a single for EMCC, then back-to-back, two-out base hits pushed her across.

It stayed a 1-0 game until the sixth, when Howard started a one-out rally for the Lady Eagles. Courtney Gordon and Chantalle Wilson had the big blows in the inning.

Howard finished 3-for-3, while Gordon and Wilson were both 2-for-3 for Meridian.

In the second game, four different Lady Eagles had three hits as MCC opened the floodgates offensively.

Gordon’s RBI triple in the first scored Sally Kerstetter, then Lindsay Hitt followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0.

In the third, Howard led off with a double and the Lady Eagles took advantage of two errors by EMCC to get a big rally going. Hitt, Karen McCullough, Vanna Henderson and Shalonda Mitchell all had hits in the inning — which ended with MCC up 7-0.

EMCC’s highlight came in the bottom of the fourth, when Hickman drilled a two-run blast deep over the center field wall to pull the Lady Lions within 7-2.

But MCC got an unearned run back in the fifth, then went off for five more runs in the top of the sixth.

Gordon started that rally with a double, while Hitt, Wilson, Henderson, Mitchell and Terra Moore all had hits.

Gordon finished 3-for-4 with a double, triple and three runs; Hitt was 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs; Henderson was 3-for-3 with two RBIs; and Mitchell, a former Southeast Lauderdale standout, was 3-for-3 with two RBIs.

Moore added two hits and two RBIs, Wilson had two hits and two runs and McCullough scored twice.

Another former Southeast Lauderdale standout, Lindsey Raines, was 3-for-3 to lead the Lady Lions. Hickman finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

MCC is at Hinds Saturday, while EMCC goes to Hinds next Tuesday.