NACC softball collects 40th win of season

The No. 1-nationally ranked Northeast Alabama Community College softball team collected another program milestone win in the first game of a doubleheader on Thursday.

The Mustangs posted win No. 40 during a 16-1 rout of visiting conference foe Northwest Shoals at NACC's Nathaniel Ledbetter Stadium.

The win was also NACC's new-program record 21st consecutive victory, a winning streak that ended when Northwest Shoals upset the Mustangs 5-4 in Game 2.

NACC, which is 40-2 on the season and 21-1 in Alabama Community College Conference play, concludes a four-game ACCC series with a doubleheader against Northwest Shoals in Muscle Shoals. That doubleheader, originally scheduled for Saturday, has been moved to Sunday at 2 p.m.

Game 1 Thursday was all Northeast, as the Mustangs scored in every inning while totaling 13 hits, including three home runs, and seven walks. Eight different NACC batters recorded a hit and nine different Mustangs drove in a run.

The Mustangs built a 9-0 lead in the bottom of the first, an inning that featured a two-run double and an RBI single from freshman Marti McCluskey and RBI doubles from sophomore Emmorie Burke and freshman Morgan Perkins. 

Hatch was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the second inning to plate a run for NACC, and McCluskey and sophomore Francesca Lumpp launched back-to-back home runs to start the third inning. Hatch led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer, and the Mustangs scored three more runs in the inning to take a 16-0 lead thanks to freshman Austin McNeece's RBI single, sophomore Sierra Walding's RBI walk and freshman Iliana Flores' RBI groundout.

McCluskey finished 3-for-3 with four RBIs and three runs scored while Hatch was 3-for-3 with two RBIs and three runs scored for the Mustangs, who also got two hits and one RBI from freshman Olivia Acuff, one hit and one RBI each from Lumpp, Burke, Perkins and McNeece and one RBI apiece from Flores and Walding. Sophomore Emma Hindmon drew two walks while Perkins, McNeece, Walding and sophomores Jada Hampton and Sophia Murphey drew one each.

Freshman Addie Edwards got her NJCAA-leading 21st win in the pitching circle. The right-hander, who had a 32 2/3 scoreless innings streak snapped in the top of the fifth, improved to 21-0 after recording five strikeouts while allowing one run on six hits and no walks over five innings.

Game 2 was an uncharacteristic outing for the Mustangs, who were out-hit and committed two errors. It was also the first game this season that NACC never led.

After Northwest Shoals took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth, the Mustangs got on the scoreboard when Morgan Perkins walked and scored two batters later on freshman Lorelei Sullivan's RBI single. Both teams scored a run in the fifth ― McCluskey doubled for NACC and scored on Lumpp's RBI double ― and the Mustangs pulled within 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth on Hatch's two-run homer. NACC got the tying run on base to start the seventh inning, but the Mustangs were retired in order following Lumpp's leadoff double.

Hatch finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Lumpp was 2-for-3 and also drew a walk for NACC, which got one hit and two walks from both Perkins and sophomore Kiley Weston and one hit each from McCluskey and Sullivan.