Mustangs edge Odessa at NJCAA World Series

The Northeast Alabama Community College softball team survived a lengthy weather delay, a change of venue and a pesky Odessa team to remain in the winners bracket at the 2026 National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Softball World Series.

Sophomore Emma Hindmon scored what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning on sophomore Chloe Hatch's RBI sacrifice fly to give third-seeded NACC a 4-3 win over sixth-seeded Odessa (Texas) College Thursday afternoon. 

The game started at approximately 11:30 on Field 2 at Oxford's Choccolocco Park, but inclement weather moved in shortly before 1 p.m. and the game was delayed with the Mustangs in front 3-2 in the top of the fifth. The game was ultimately moved to Jacksonville State University, where it restarted at 3:30 p.m. and took roughly 20 minutes to complete. 

The win advanced NACC (53-4) into a winners bracket semifinal contest that will be played Friday against seventh-seeded Paris (Texas) Junior College at 9 a.m. at Choccolocco Park's Signature Field in Oxford. If NACC wins, it advances to play Saturday at 1 p.m. in the winners bracket final. A loss would send the Mustangs to an elimination game later Friday at 1:30 p.m.

Against Odessa, Northeast took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, turning sophomore Chloe Hatch's lead-off single into a run on freshman Marti McCluskey's RBI single. After Odessa tied the game in the top of the second, NACC went back in front 2-1 in its half of the inning when freshman Olivia Acuff singled and scored on Emma Hindmon's two-out RBI single. Odessa tied it in the top of the third, but again the Mustangs answered, taking a 3-2 advantage in the bottom of the inning when sophomore Francesca Lumpp doubled and her courtesy runner, sophomore Audra Bellomy, scored on sophomore Emmorie Burke's RBI groundout. Following the nearly three-hour weather delay and venue change, Odessa tied the game 3-all with a home run to start the top of the sixth inning. But NACC regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Hindmon singled, went to third base on freshman Lorelai Sullivan's double and scored on Hatch's RBI sacrifice fly to center field.

Freshman right-handed pitcher Addie Edwards then tossed a perfect seventh inning for NACC, getting a pop-out and two strikeouts to end the game. She improved to 31-0 in the circle while recording 11 strikeouts and surpassing the 200-strikeout mark for the season in the process.

Hindmon and McCluskey had two hits and two RBIs each for the Mustangs while Lumpp, Acuff and Sullivan had two hits each and Hatch had one hit and one RBI.