No. 3 NACC finishes historic regular season with 48 wins

The 2026 Northeast Alabama Community College softball team has set the bar high for future NACC teams that will chase the program's regular season wins record.

The No. 3-nationally ranked Mustangs posted win No. 48 of the season with a 9-1 Game 1 victory while splitting their regular-season ending doubleheader at Alabama Community College Conference foe Shelton State Saturday in Tuscaloosa.

Northeast finished the regular season with an overall record of 48-4 and claimed the ACCC regular-season title with a 29-3 conference mark. The Mustangs, who finished their second season of competition by outscoring opponents 447-101, are the No. 1 seed for the 2026 ACCC Division I Softball Tournament (May 14-17), which begins Thursday at Veterans Park in Alabaster. NACC opens the double-elimination tournament Thursday at 2 p.m. against the winner of Calhoun and Gadsden State.

NACC posted win No. 48 Saturday thanks to contributions from many players, including a Tuscaloosa native, as Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa product Marti McCluskey hit two home runs. The freshman, who is second in the ACCC in RBIs (70), third in batting average (.446) and fourth in home runs (14), hit an inside-the-park home run in the third inning and a conventional two-run shot in the sixth.

Sophomore Emmorie Burke also hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning for NACC, which also got RBI doubles from sophomores Francesca Lumpp, Chloe Hatch and Kiley Weston and an RBI single from Olivia Acuff during the Game 1 victory. Burke finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs while Hatch, Weston, McCluskey, Acuff and freshman Morgan Perkins had two hits each and Lumpp had one. The Mustangs also got walks from Lumpp, Acuff, Perkins and freshman Lorelai Sullivan.

Freshman right-hander Addie Edwards capped her perfect regular season with her 26th victory after tossing her 24th complete game. Edwards, who leads the ACCC and the National Junior College Athletic Association in wins (26-0) and ERA (0.67), allowed one run on three hits and two walks while striking out three. She finished the regular season with an ACCC-leading 174 strikeouts.

Meanwhile, NACC dropped a 3-2 decision to the Bucs in Game 2. Trailing 2-0 after two innings, NACC cut the deficit in half in the third inning when sophomore Emma Hindmon walked and sophomore pinch runner Audra Bellomy scored three batters later on McCluskey's RBI sacrifice fly. The Mustangs tied the game in the sixth on Lumpp's solo home run, but Shelton State used a single and three consecutive hit batters to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth, and NACC was retired in order in the seventh to end the game. Lumpp and Perkins both finished 2-for-3 and Weston went 2-for-4 for the Mustangs, who got one hit from McCluskey and one walk each from Hindmon and Acuff.