ICC softball wins championship

MERIDIAN – The Itawamba Community College softball team won the 2018 Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges regular season championship in dramatic fashion Saturday in Meridian.

Needing a sweep to earn the crown, the No. 4 Indians (35-7, 26-2 MACJC) defeated Meridian Community College (11-26, 9-19 MACJC) 9-4 in the first game of the day and were clinging to a 1-0 lead heading to the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Eagles started the inning with a solo home run by Jayla Poindexter to tie the game 1-1 before putting the go ahead run on second base with one out. Olivia Burns got a pop up to third and shallow left field hauled in by Rachel Sternisha to get out of the inning with minimum damage done.

With two outs in the top of the seventh, Cori Childs drew a five-pitch walk and stole her 42nd base of the season before Hannah Williams drew a six-pitch walk. Samantha Conley dropped a single in front of a diving center fielder to score Childs to give the Indians a 2-1 advantage.

Williams moved to third on the hit and scored on a double steal when Conley duped the catcher to throw to first after acting like she tripped and fell on her attempt to second. It was a moved that proved to be the difference maker in the game after Meridian scored a run in the bottom half of the inning before the Indians could end the inning to escape with a 3-2 victory.

Conley went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a stolen base in the victory. Burns scattered four hits and struck out four to improve to 16-2 for the year.