NACC clinches No. 1 seed in conference tournament

The Northeast Alabama Community College softball team is halfway to checking off all of its goals for the 2026 season.

After securing a berth in the Alabama Community College Conference/National Junior College Athletic Association Region 22 Division I Softball Tournament a few weeks back, the No. 3-nationally ranked Mustangs secured the tournament's No. 1 seed thanks to a doubleheader sweep of Southern Union in Wadley on Monday.

It's the first ACCC/NJCAA Region 22 Tournament appearance for Northeast, which started its softball program just last season.

"We are happy that we have accomplished two of the four goals we made this season," said NACC head coach Joe Guthrie. "First, we wanted to qualify for the Region 22 tournament. Secondly, we wanted to win the regular season so that we would have a bye in the tournament. Two more championship goals remain — the ACCC Championship played May 16 and the NJCAA Championship played May 31. We need to continue to improve to reach and win the last two."

The ACCC/NJCAA Region 22 Tournament is May 14-16 at Veterans Park in Alabaster. Six teams will compete for an automatic bid to the 2026 NJCAA DI Softball World Series, which is May 25-31 at Choccolocco Park in Oxford.

Monday's wins improved the Mustangs to 45-3 on the season and to 26-2 in conference play.

After rain pushed back the final two games of their series with Southern Union from Saturday to Monday— NACC won the series' first two games 9-1 and 8-0 at home on Thursday — the Mustangs produced 29 runs and 24 hits while also turning in strong efforts in the field and in the pitching circle to complete the series sweep. 

NACC won the opener Monday 13-1 in five innings.

Freshman Marti McCluskey's RBI double and sophomore Emmorie Burke's RBI single staked the Mustangs to 2-0 lead in the top of the first before the advantage grew to 5-1 in the fourth on freshman Lorelai Sullivan's two-run double and sophomore Chloe Hatch's RBI single. NACC salted the game away with an eight-run fifth inning that included a two-run double from sophomore Kiley Weston, two-run singles by Sullivan and McCluskey and RBI singles Burke and freshman Olivia Acuff.

Sullivan, who leads the ACCC in batting average (.513), went 2-for-3 with four RBIs while McCluskey had two hits, a walk and drove in three runs for the Mustangs, who also got two hits and two RBIs each from Weston and Burke, two hits from freshman Morgan Perkins and one hit and one RBI each from Hatch and Acuff.

Freshman pitcher Addie Edwards picked up her NJCAA-leading 24th win, staying undefeated in the circle after surrendering one unearned run on three hits and no walks. The right-hander, who also leads the nation in ERA (0.65), fanned four batters to increase her ACCC-leading strikeout total to 165.

It was more of the same for the Mustangs in Game 2's five-inning 16-1 victory. 

NACC took control with a six-run second inning — the frame included freshman Breanna Wilson's RBI single, Hatch's RBI sacrifice fly and McCluskey's two-run double — before extending its lead to 9-0 in the third on sophomore Savannah Cantrell's three-run home run. The Mustangs then put together a seven-run fifth inning, getting an RBI single from sophomore Sierra Walding, an RBI double from sophomore Jada Hampton, an RBI groundout from McCluskey and a two-run single from freshman Austin McNeece before Burke put a bow on the inning with a two-run homer.

Wilson finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored and Acuff had two hits and three runs for Northeast while Burke, Cantrell and McCluskey, who is now tied for the ACCC lead in RBIs (66), drove in three runs each. The Mustangs got one hit each from McCluskey, McNeece, Burke, Perkins, Hampton and Walding and an RBI from Sullivan.

Three NACC pitchers combined to toss a six-hitter against Southern Union in Game 2. Freshman right-hander Erin Harrelson, who is second in the ACCC behind Edwards in ERA (1.62), got the win after pitching two shutout innings. Sophomore left-hander Kayleigh Warnock, who is fifth in the conference in ERA (2.24), recorded one strikeout in two scoreless relief innings while freshman right-hander Chloe Helton pitched one inning in relief.

The Mustangs are off for the remainder of the week before concluding the regular season with a four-game ACCC series with Shelton State. The series begins with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 7 at NACC's Nathaniel Ledbetter Stadium — NACC will celebrate "Sophomore Day" during the doubleheader — before shifting to Shelton State in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, May 9 for a series and regular-season ending doubleheader that begins at noon.

Tickets for next Thursday's doubleheader at NACC are available at gofan.co/app/school/AL100680. Students receive free admission by presenting a current NACC ID.