By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
Feb. 19, 2002
Big innings win ballgames.
The Lady Eagles of Meridian Community College may have as well been wearing that on their shirts on Sunday afternoon, because they sure lived it out on the diamond as they swept a pair of fast-pitch softball games from visiting Bishop (Ala.) State Community College of Mobile.
MCC scored six runs in the bottom of the first to win the opener 8-0, before scoring six runs in the fifth inning of the nightcap to post a 9-5 come-from-behind victory.
While MCC, ranked No. 19 in the country among Division I junior colleges in the NJCAA preseason poll, picked up nine hits in the opener, the Lady Eagles exploded for 17 in the second game.
Meridian returns to action on Thursday when it hosts 9-4 Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College at 2 p.m. in a doubleheader at the Northeast Softball Complex.
Anne McLean, a freshman from Canada, fired a five-hit shutout in the opener for the Lady Eagles.
McLean was also one of the hitting stars, going 3-for-3, while Dreka Shumpert was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
The biggest hit of the game came off the bat of freshman Lindsey Stamm of Clarkdale High School.
She ripped a bases-loaded triple in the six-run first to break the game wide open.
Stephanie Dixon added two hits and an RBI to the winning cause.
MCC fell behind 2-0 in the second game, before picking up single runs in the second and third to tie the game.
Bishop State regained the lead at 4-2, before the Lady Eagles hit for the six-run inning in the fifth. Krystal Jenkins put the winners ahead for good with a two-run double.
Ashlee Frazier, also the winning pitcher, was 3-for-4 at the plate with a double and four RBIs. Jenkins had two singles and a double for the winners, while Ashley Cofield had a walk and three singles.
Layla Brewer had a single and double for the winners, while Dixon and Stamm had two hits each.