No. 3 MGCCC crushes EMCC in playoff opener

PERKINSTON – No. 3 Mississippi Gulf Coast's power is popping up all over the lineup, and social media provided a window into its source earlier this week.

The Lady Bulldogs slugged three home runs to beat East Mississippi 11-2 in five innings Friday in a MACJC first-round playoff victory at Ross-Smith Field. They have hit home runs in five straight games,

Kelli Berry, batting in the ninth spot, cranked her first home run of the season in the second inning, flipping a one-run deficit.

"We're working hard," the freshman said. "We had an early workout and that helped us a lot. We're trusting the coaches, and we're barreling the ball up."

Izzy Werdann and Lexie Mathis, two more freshmen, also homered to put the Lady Bulldogs up 1-0 in the best-of-three series over the Lions (19-22). Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Saturday in Perkinston. First pitch is at 1 p.m., with a third game, if necessary, following 30 minutes later.

Gulf Coast coach Kenneth Long tweeted a photo Tuesday from the MGCCC Athletic Performance Facility. The Lady Bulldogs were pumping iron at 7:40 a.m.

"I give 100 percent credit to that right there," he said. "We work hard when we go in there, we give a lot of effort and ask a lot out of them. Even though it was real early in the morning the other day and we'd gotten back late the night before, we work really hard in there. It's prepared us all year."

Deborah Elmore's RBI single gave Gulf Coast a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Lady Bulldogs made two errors in the second inning that led to a 2-1 deficit.

Berry's two-run shot made it 3-2, and Elmore drove in two more with a triple. She finished 3-for-3 in Gulf Coast's 16-hit onslaught.

"The deeper we get into the season, the more we realize how much we can do and how much we're capable of, and how far we can go if we keep playing together," Elmore said. "We just getting closer and becoming a better team."

Izzy Werdann banged one over the wall in the fourth for her fourth home run of the game to make it 8-2, and Alyssa Hardy's single drove in another.

Mathis ended the game with two outs in the fifth, crushing a ball to left for her 15^th homer of the season.

It's the fifth straight game the Lady Bulldogs have homered. They've ended their three games with the Lions by hitting home runs to invoke the 8-run rule.

Kaitlin Lee (21-1) allowed two hits in five innings, and both the runs she allowed were unearned.

Hannah Melendrez had a double, and all but one Gulf Coast player had a hit. Mathis, Werdann, Hardy, Berry, Brittany Cooley and Camry Griffith had two hits.