No. 2 NACC sweeps doubleheader with No. 24 Gadsden State

In the first ever matchup between two nationally-ranked teams at Northeast Alabama Community College's Nathaniel Ledbetter Stadium, the home team defended its turf.

The No. 2-ranked NACC softball team used good pitching and some timely hitting to post a 9-1, 10-3 doubleheader sweep of No. 24 Gadsden State Thursday afternoon.

It was the sixth straight win for the Mustangs (25-1) and also improved them to 6-0 in the Alabama Community College Conference Division I softball standings.

"We played well," said NACC head coach Joe Guthrie. "We'll have to be ready to go Saturday. (Gadsden State is) a good team and they're not used to losing. They're going to come back and give us their best shot. We've got our work cut out for us."

The teams conclude their four-game ACCC series with a doubleheader in Gadsden Saturday starting at 3 p.m. NACC is tied with No. 12 Wallace State-Hanceville and Coastal Alabama-South for first in the ACCC standings heading into Saturday's matchups.

In Thursday's doubleheader, the Mustangs produced 19 runs on 29 hits and three walks while pitchers Addie Edwards, Erin Harrelson and Kayleigh Warnock limited a Gadsden State (24-3, 3-3) team that entered the doubleheader averaging nine runs a game to only four runs over 12 innings.

"The pitching staff was good," Guthrie said.

Edwards notched her conference-leading 13th win, tossing a five-inning complete game. The 13-0 freshman right-hander allowed one run on five hits and one walk while recording seven strikeouts.

Gadsden State took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but NACC countered with three runs in the bottom of the first — freshman Marti McCluskey hit an RBI double and freshman Austin McNeece had an RBI single — before striking for four more in the third on sophomore Francesca Lumpp's' RBI double and McNeece's three-run home run. Sophomore Kiley Weston's RBI single gave the Mustangs an 8-1 lead in the fourth before freshman Morgan Perkins' walk-off RBI double invoked the eight-run mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth.

McNeece finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs, Weston was 3-for-3 with two doubles, an RBI and two runs scored and McCluskey (two RBIs, two runs) and Lumpp (RBI, run scored) both went 2-for-3 for NACC while Perkins (RBI) and freshman Lorelai Sullivan (run) both doubled and sophomore Chloe Hatch singled and scored a run.

In Game 2, Gadsden State again took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but NACC needed just two pitches in the bottom of the inning to tie the game as Hatch hit a lead-off double before scoring when Weston doubled on the next pitch. Following walks by Lumpp and sophomore Emmorie Burke, Perkins and freshman Olivia Acuff delivered a two-run single and an RBI single respectively to put the Mustangs in front 4-1. Gadsden State pulled within 4-3 in the top of the second, but NACC countered with McCluskey's RBI double in the bottom of the inning before striking for five runs during a fourth inning that included RBI doubles from Acuff and Sullivan and an RBI single from Hatch.

Six different Mustangs had multiple hits during the win, with Sullivan leading the way with a 3-for-4 effort. Perkins and Acuff finished with two hits and two RBIs each while Hatch, Weston and McCluskey had two hits and one RBI apiece and Lumpp, Burke and sophomore Emma Hindmon had one hit each.

Warnock improved to 4-0 in the circle after pitching four shutout innings in relief. The sophomore left-hander recorded two strikeouts. Harrelson started and pitched the first three innings, finishing with one strikeout.