NACC to play for conference title
Top-seeded Mustangs edge second-seeded Wallace State for spot in ACCC Softball Tournament championship finals
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
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0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
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0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 2 | 6 | 0 |
The Northeast Alabama Community College softball team will play for its first conference tournament championship.
The top-seeded and No. 3-nationally ranked Mustangs rallied from an early deficit to edge second-seeded and No. 9-ranked Wallace State 2-1 in the Alabama Community College Conference/National Junior College Athletic Association Region 22 Division I Softball Tournament semifinals at Veterans Park in Alabaster on Friday.
The win advanced NACC to the conference championship round, where it will play at approximately 2 p.m. Saturday against either Wallace State or Coastal Alabama-South. If NACC wins Saturday, it secures the tournament championship. A loss would mean a rematch Sunday at noon in a winner-take-all championship matchup.
Admission for the tournament is $15 per day. Children ages 6 and under are admitted free as are any youth who wear their team jersey. Tournament games will be streamed live at www.jockjive.com.
Friday's win was also the 50th of the season for the Mustangs (50-4).
A solo home run gave Wallace State a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but NACC freshman Marti McCluskey led off the bottom of the fourth by homering to center field to tie the score. Sophomore Francesca Lumpp followed with a single, and sophomore pinch runner Audra Bellomy moved to second base on sophomore Emmorie Burke's sacrifice bunt and to third base on freshman Olivia Acuff's groundout before scoring what proved to be the winning run on freshman Morgan Perkins' two-out RBI single.
NACC freshman right-hander Addie Edwards made the lead stand up, pitching out of a two-runners-aboard jam in the sixth inning and pitching around a one-out double in the seventh. A lineout to NACC first baseman Emma Hindmon ended the game, stranding the tying run at second base.
Edwards improved to 28-0 in the circle as the ACCC Pitcher of the Year tossed her 26th complete game. She finished with three strikeouts while allowing one run on four hits and two walks.
Lumpp finished 2-for-3 at the plate and McCluskey hit her 15th home run of the season for the Mustangs, who got a single and a walk from Lorelai Sullivan and one hit each each from Perkins and Chloe Hatch.
