No. 24 Bulldogs split with No. 18 NWCC
| Final (8) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Northwest Mississippi Community College | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 1 |
|
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 3 |
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Northwest Mississippi Community College | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
|
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
PERKINSTON — No. 24 Mississippi Gulf Coast played two nailbiters Saturday at Ross-Smith Field against No. 18 Northwest Mississippi, and both teams left with a win.
The Bulldogs' Piper Rushing hit a walk-off two-run homer in the eighth inning of the opener to win 6-4, and the Rangers scored a run in the seventh for a 4-3 victory and a split.
"I think we played really good," Gulf Coast coach Izzy Werdann said. "It was good prep going into the games that we have next week, and I think that we played really good. We fought."
The Bulldogs are now 19-14 overall, 5-9 MACCC. They'll travel to No. 6 Jones on Tuesday, with first pitch set for 4 p.m. The games will be streamed at https://jcbobcats.com/watch.
Rushing, a freshman from D'Iberville, entered the first game as a defensive replacement. She came to the plate for the first time with Brooklyn Mitchell (So., Gulfport/St. Patrick) on first after a leadoff single in the eighth. Facing an 0-2 count, she fouled a ball off, then lined one just over the wall in left field.
"She was on it," Werdann said. "She was on it all day, the second game as well. She was squaring up balls left and right. I'm really proud of her."
Gulf Coast led 3-0 after one inning thanks to an RBI single by Natalie Jones (So., Lucedale/George County), a bases-loaded walk by Lexi Patterson (Fr., Ackerman/Choctaw County) and an RBI groundout by Kailee Lawson (Fr., Hurley/East Central).
After Northwest took a 4-3 lead in the fourth, Kinsey Cochran (So., Hurley/East Central) tripled in the bottom of the inning. Jones sacrificed her home.
McKenzie Smith (Fr., St. Amant, La./Prairieville) hung four zeroes before Rushing ended the game. Smith struck out five, allowing five hits and one walk.
Patterson and Caroline Batson (So., Wiggins/Stone) had two hits.
In the second game, Rushing staked the Bulldogs to a 1-0 lead with a first-inning sacrifice fly. After Northwest took a 3-1 lead in the third, Gulf Coast scored twice in the sixth. Lawson swapped places with Jones at second base, and Rushing sacrifice bunted the tying run in.
Northwest (17-10, 9-3) got a leadoff runner on in the seventh and broke the tie with a sac fly.
For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
