In the midst of a chal­lenging month of March against nationally-ranked conference competition, East Mississippi Commu­nity College’s softball team fell 16-6 and 5-4 to 17th-ranked Southwest Mississippi during Satur­day’s MACCC action played on the Scooba campus.

Community College maintained their first-place tie in the MACCC baseball standings by sweeping their third straight conference opponent with 13-0 and 4-2 wins at Southwest Mis­sissippi during Saturday’s league action.

The East Mississippi Community College men’s rodeo team claimed a sec­ond straight runner-up fin­ish to open the Ozark Region’s spring slate by placing second again this past weekend at the Pearl River Community College Rodeo.

The Wildcats and Lady Wildcats of Kemper County High School had a successful meet at the 2022 Big Blue Invitational at Meridian High School’s Ray Stadium last week, with the KCHS boys com­ing out as meet champi­ons.

The Kemper County High School baseball team played Nanih Waiya twice last week, dropping the first game 16-1 and the sec­ond game 12-0.

East Mississippi Commu­nity College broke open a pair of close contests with some late-game offense to sweep visiting Copiah-Lin­coln, 11-3 and 4-1, during Sunday’s MACCC baseball action played at EMCC’s Gerald Poole Field.

MERIDIAN — Host East Mississippi Community College claimed runner-up team finishes in both men’s and women’s competitions this past weekend during the school’s 10th Annual Intercollegiate Rodeo.

Commu­nity College opened the conference softball season by dropping a pair of road decisions, 6-3 and 5-1, at East Central Community College during Friday af­ternoon MACCC action played on the ECCC cam­pus.

The Kemper County High School softball team split a pair of games last week, taking a 16-7 win over West Point, while dropping a 16-1 decision to dis­trict one Choctaw County High School.

The Kemper County High School boys and girls track teams both had strong showings against bigger schools once again, with a stellar performance in the Golden Triangle Showdown hosted by Columbus High School last week.

After winning one of three games last week, the Kemper County High School baseball team has a another tough challenge this week as the Wildcats visit Eupora for a region doubleheader today (Thursday), before visiting Kemper Academy for a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday.

In advance of scheduled April 30 cheerleading tryouts for the 2022-23 academic year, East Mississippi Com­munity College will be holding two additional cheerleading stunt clinics on the Scooba campus.

The Kemper Academy Rams picked up their first two baseball wins of the season with wins over the Meridian Homeschool Flyers and the Kemper County Wildcats.

It was a tough week for the Rams, as they went 0-3 on the week and 0-2 in division play. The first loss was to Sylva Bay on Tuesday, as the Rams fell 7-5.

POPLARVILLE — East Mississippi Community College’s fourth-seeded Lions collected their sec­ond men’s basketball con­ference tournament championship in four years by earning a hard-fought 60-58 victory over nationally 23rd-ranked and No. 2 seed Northeast Mississippi during Thurs­day’s title game of the MACCC Basketball Tour­nament played this week at the Marvin R. White Coliseum on the Pearl River Community College campus.

With four boys and three girls returning that competed in the MH­SASS Class 2A State Track Meet last season, KCHS track coach Keith Cole likes the way things look for his team this sea­son.

First-year Kemper County High School fast-pitch softball coach Freddy Thomas doesn’t have to think long to come up with his team’s strengths. “Pitching and overall team speed,” he said. “That’ 's what we will be relying on.”

Despite finishing 3-12 in his first season as head baseball coach at Kemper County high School, Di­cenzo Miller said he loved the way his team grew at the end of the season.

Guided by first-year head coach Whitney Hawkins, who previously served as an EMCC assistant softball coach during the 2018 sea­son, the 2022 EMCC Lions enter this year’s softball campaign with a versatile 14-player roster consisting of five returners and nine newcomers.

Guided by fourth-year head baseball coach Brett Kimbrel, the 2022 EMCC baseball edition features five position players who each started 18 or more games for last year’s 18-18 team that narrowly missed qualifying for postseason play.