SCOOBA – Needing a doubleheader softball sweep in their regular-season finale to secure the program’s first postseason playoff appearance in eight years, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College accomplished just that by claiming 4-0 and 6-2 home wins over Southwest Mississippi during Monday’s MACCC action played at the EMCC Softball Field.

With the home sweep over Southwest during the conference’s final regular-season softball action, EMCC ended the regular season tied with Southwest and Hinds with matching 11-17 MACCC records. The Lions earned the 10th and final seed for the upcoming NJCAA Region 23 Softball Tournament by virtue of posting the best composite record (3-1) against the other two tied opponents (2-0 vs. SMCC & 1-1 vs. Hinds).

By earning EMCC’s first softball postseason playoff appearance since 2017, the Lions will take on seventh-seeded Mississippi Gulf Coast in a play-in game on Saturday at Community Bank Park/Gwen Magee Field on the Jones College campus in Ellisville. First pitch between the Lions and Bulldogs is set for 5 p.m. The tournament was originally scheduled to begin Thursday, but forecasted rain for the end of the week prompted play to be moved back two days.

The EMCC-MGCCC winner will advance to the double-elimination portion of the four-team, Jones-hosted tournament and take on second-seeded and nationally seventh-ranked Jones on Sunday at 3 p.m. No. 3 seed and 10th-ranked LSU Eunice will meet No. 6 seed and 18th-ranked Pearl River immediately following at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

The other semifinal tournament pod of the 2025 NJCAA Region 23 Softball Championship will be hosted by MACCC Champion and nationally third-ranked Copiah-Lincoln during the same postponed four-day span (May 3-6) in Wesson. The play-in game for the Co-Lin-hosted bracket will feature No. 9 seed Itawamba versus No. 8 seed East Central. The other teams competing in Wesson will be No. 4 seed and nationally 11th-ranked Northeast Mississippi and No. 5 seed and 13th-ranked Northwest Mississippi.

The winners of the two semifinal tournament pods will play a single championship game for the 2025 NJCAA Region 23 Softball Championship on May 10 at the home site of the higher-seeded competing team.

EMCC’s long-awaited upcoming softball postseason appearance came to fruition by Monday’s home sweep over Southwest Mississippi, who had held a two-game advantage over EMCC in the conference standings coming into the matchup. The opening game featured a masterful one-hit shutout pitching performance by sophomore Gail Wisher for her second straight shutout over a four-day span. The Irvington, Alabama native earlier blanked Mississippi Delta, 5-0, with a two-hitter the previous Friday, April 25, in Scooba.

In EMCC’s 4-0 game one win over Southwest, the Lions took an initial 2-0 lead with a pair of two-out runs off Southwest starting pitcher Corin Talbot. After Karen Wisher and Gail Wisher reached base on a single and hit batsman, respectively, the speed of sophomore outfielder Victoria Irby proved to be a significant factor when her slow infield grounder was hurriedly fielded and thrown away at first base, allowing the Wisher twin sisters to both race across home plate.

The Lions posted another two-run inning three frames later when Karen Wisher followed Rachel Rommel’s RBI single with a sacrifice fly off SMCC reliever Tye Boone.

EMCC evenly distributed the team’s seven hits in the opening game. Meanwhile in the circle for the Lions, Gail Wisher faced just two batters over the minimum with eight strikeouts over seven innings of work. She only allowed a leadoff single to Talbot in the second inning and then walked Erin Acey in the sixth.

The nightcap featured two ties through the first four innings before the Lions took the lead for good with three runs in the fifth inning and another insurance run the following frame. Sasha King’s run-scoring single plated Gail Wisher, who had doubled, for the game’s initial score in the opening frame. After Southwest knotted the game at 1-1 with a run in the third inning, EMCC promptly answered by going back ahead in the home half of the frame on Savannah Fralix’s RBI single.

With EMCC’s Gail Wisher making her second pitching start of the afternoon, the Lady Bears tied the nightcap a second time on Lauryn Roebuck’s two-out RBI single in the fourth frame.

After EMCC freshman pitcher Allee Bennett entered the game in the fifth inning on the heels of Gail Wisher’s gutsy 140-pitch afternoon in the circle, the Lions responded with a three-run fifth inning ignited by the top third of their lineup. The Wisher twins got things rolling with back-to-back doubles off Southwest starter Skye Sharp followed by an Irby single and consecutive run-producing groundouts from King and Fralix.

A frame later, Karen Wisher stroked her second double of the game in as many innings and later came around to score another insurance run on Irby’s RBI single.

Bennett, from Perkinston and out of St. Patrick Catholic High School, closed out the 6-2 nightcap by scattering three singles while striking out a pair over the final three innings to pick up her second victory of the season.

At the top of EMCC’s lineup, the Wisher sisters and Irby all went 2-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored apiece in the closing game. Fralix added two hits and a pair of RBIs to help lead the Lions’ 11-hit team effort.

Head coach Mackenzie Byrd’s EMCC Lions enter postseason action with an overall record of 15-25 that includes the most conference wins (11) in a single season for EMCC’s softball program since 2018.

 

 

2025 NJCAA Region 23 Softball Tournament Semifinal

May 3-6 at Jones College (Ellisville, MS)

Saturday, May 3

Play-In: East Mississippi vs. Gulf Coast, 5 p.m.

Sunday, May 4

Game 1: Jones vs. Play-In winner, 3 p.m.

Game 2: LSU Eunice vs Pearl River, 6 p.m.

Monday, May 5

Game 3: Winner G1 vs Winner G2, 1 p.m.

Game 4: Loser G1 vs Loser G2, 4 p.m.

Game 5: Loser G3 vs Winner G4, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, May 6

Game 6: Winner G3 vs Winner G5, 2 p.m.

Game 7: If necessary, 5 p.m.