By By Robby Atkinson / staff writer
March 23, 2004
SCOOBA Before Monday, the East Mississippi Lady Lions hadn't taken to the softball field since March 11, and the worst fear of head coach Pam Moore was post spring break woes.
Those worries were put to rest as the Lady Lions used a pair of solid pitching performance from Libby Denny and some timely hitting to take a doubleheader sweep (5-0, 4-3) over Itawamba Community College.
East Mississippi 5
Itawamba 0
Denny pitched seven strong innings and allowed only two hits to go along with seven strikeouts in the shutout win in game one.
East Mississippi provided Denny with plenty of offense in the game to walk away with the win. The Lady Lions scored two runs in the first inning on a pair of throwing errors by Itawamba to take a 2-0 lead.
East Mississippi added another run in the third inning, thanks to a pair of errors in the infield by the Lady Indians. The Lady Lions added another pair of runs in the fifth inning on a single from Denny and an RBI fielder's choice from Paula Hummer.
East Mississippi 4
Itawamba 3
Charley Speed had struggled at the plate all day long, but her last at-bat proved to be the biggest of her freshman season.
The former Enterprise Lady Bulldog connected on a single to right field that broke a 3-3 tie and led East Mississippi to the one-run win over Itawamba.
East Mississippi took an early lead with one run in the second inning.
Kristi Thomlison led off the second with a walk, and Allison Morgan followed with a base hit to put a pair of runners on base. Thomlison later scored on a wild pitch by Itawamba starting pitcher Shelia Runnels.
East Mississippi added another pair of runs in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead over Itawamba. LaTonya Primer led the inning off with a walk, and Shay Jackson followed by reaching on a walk as well to put a pair of runners on base for East Mississippi.
One run came around to score for the Lady Lions on a single from Thomlison, and the second run crossed the plate to make the score 3-0.
Itawamba responded with three runs in the top of the fourth to tie the game.
East Mississippi was able to hold off the Lady Indians to scratch for the final run in the seventh inning and take the win.
Amber Joyner led the inning off with a walk and collected a stolen base that set up the game-winning single by Speed.