By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
Sept. 23, 2002
Twenty teams are slated to compete in the annual Meridian Community College slow-pitch softball tournament on Saturday. Area teams participating are Choctaw Central, Clarkdale, Meridian, Neshoba Central, Newton County, Northeast Lauderdale, Southeast Lauderdale, Union, and West Lauderdale.
State powers New Hope and Moss Point are also slated to compete. Unlike in previous years, there will be no overall champion this time, only pool winners due to the MHSAA's cutback of games allowed. Each team will play against the other four teams in its pool.
Competing in one pool are Moss Point, New Hope, Northeast Lauderdale, West Lauderdale, and Petal.
Another pool has Newton County, Meridian, East Central, Natchez, and Harrison Central.
A third pool is composed of Neshoba Central, Clarkdale, George County, Poplarville, and Tupelo.
The final pool has Union, Southeast Lauderdale, Columbus, Choctaw Central, and Greene County.
In today's regular season games, Philadelphia hosts Carthage in Division 5-3A and in Division 4-5A, Meridian hosts Northwest Rankin.
In 6-1A, Union hosts Edinburg, Lake goes to Nanih Waiya, and Noxapater hosts Sebastopol. In 6-3A, Forest hosts Morton.
New Hope comes to Meridian on Tuesday to take on the Lady Wildcats in a non-division contest at Northeast Park. In 5-3A, Southeast Lauderdale hosts West Lauderdale.
In 2-4A, Neshoba Central hosts Louisville. In 5-4A, Northeast Lauderdale travels to South Jones and Quitman goes to Laurel. In 5-2A, Clarkdale hosts Bay Springs and Enterprise visits Newton.
On Thursday, in 5-4A, Northeast Lauderdale hosts West Jones and Quitman hosts South Jones.
In 5-3A, Newton County hosts Carthage, Philadelphia hosts Southeast Lauderdale, and Choctaw Central goes to West Lauderdale.
In 5-2A, Enterprise hosts Bay Springs and Clarkdale hosts Taylorsville. In 2-4A, Neshoba Central hosts West Point and Noxubee County goes to New Hope.
In 6-1A, Edinburg is at Sebastopol, Nanih Waiya hosts Noxapater, and Union goes to Lake. In 6-3A, Forest hosts Collins. In non-division action, Newton hosts Morton.
In fast-pitch action, Leake Academy will host Winston Academy on Tuesday with the Academy AA State Tournament set for Saturday at Benton Academy.