Mustangs to play for national championship

The Northeast Alabama Community College softball team will play for a national championship.

The third-seeded Mustangs used some clutch hitting to score three runs each in the third and sixth innings while getting another strong effort from freshman pitcher Addie Edwards to defeat top-seeded Florida Southwestern State College 6-4 in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Softball World Series' winners bracket final on Saturday.

NACC (55-4), in just its second season of softball, reached the NJCAA World Series championship round after starting 4-0 in its first World Series appearance. The Mustangs play fourth-seeded Temple (Texas) College on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Choccolocco Park in Oxford. NACC needs just one win in the championship round to claim the national title while Temple must defeat NACC twice to win the crown. Tickets for Sunday's championship round are $15. It is also can been streamed on ESPN+ and will be broadcast on WWIC Radio 1050 AM.

"We win one more and we've done the job," said NACC head coach Joe Guthrie. "We need to finish this off."

Clutch hitting helped the Mustangs put themselves a win away from a national championship.

After two scoreless innings, sophomore Kiley Weston singled to right field to start a streak of five consecutive hits for the Mustangs. Freshman Marti McCluskey doubled to right field to plate Weston for a 1-0 lead, and sophomore Francesca Lumpp roped the next pitch into the left-center field gap for an RBI double to drive in McCluskey. Following a single from freshman Olivia Acuff, sophomore Emmorie Burke blooped an RBI single into shallow left-center field to plate Lumpp for a 3-0 NACC lead. Florida Southwestern State then loaded the bases with no outs to start bottom of the third, and after a strikeout, the Bucs scored a run on a fielder's choice. But the runner at third base, anticipating NACC's Burke to throw to first base in an attempt to turn a double play, ventured too far from the bag and was caught in a rundown between third base and home plate. She was eventually tagged out by McCluskey to end the inning.

Edwards pitched out of another Florida Southwestern State scoring threat in the fifth inning by stranding two runners, and NACC then stretched its lead to 6-1 in the top of the sixth. Burke started the inning with a single before moving to second base on freshman Morgan Perkins' sacrifice bunt, and following a groundout, the Mustangs strung together three consecutive two-out hits. Freshman Lorelai Sullivan singled to right field to drive in Burke to extend NACC's lead to 4-1, and after Hatch singled on a grounder that took a big hop over the Florida Southwestern State third baseman into left field, Weston hit a two-run double to give the Mustangs a 6-1 advantage.

"I just cleared my head and knew what I had to do," Weston said. "It was amazing to help my team out in that way. Just a great feeling."

Weston finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Burke was 3-for-4 with an RBI while Hatch had two hits and was hit-by a pitch. The Mustangs also got one hit and one RBI apiece from McCluskey, Lumpp and Sullivan and one hit from Acuff. 

Florida Southwestern State tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh, using a two-out, three-run home run to pull within 6-4. But Edwards got the next Bucs batter to hit a grounder to second base where Burke, who made a diving catch on a blooper to start the inning, scooped it up and threw to sophomore first baseman Emma Hindmon for the final out to start the NACC celebration.

Edwards stayed undefeated in the circle, improving to 33-0 after tossing her 31st complete game. The right-hander allowed four runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out two. 

"I just listened to my pitching coach, and it was just me and Fran (NACC catcher Francesca Lumpp) out there," Edwards said. "I threw to my spots and trusted it."