Kirkland’s walk-off earns EMCC home split
Jenna Kirkland’s walk-off, three-run home run propelled East Mississippi Community College to a home doubleheader split with Meridian during Friday’s MACCC softball action. EMCC’s 8-5 win over the Eagles evened the score following MCC’s 16-10 victory over the Lions in the opener.
The back-and-forth nightcap began with the home-standing Lions taking an early 2-0 lead with solo runs in each of the first two innings on Celeste Study’s two-out, run-scoring double in the first and Maggie Meadows’ RBI single a frame later.
After Meridian knotted the score at 2-2 with a pair of runs in the third inning, EMCC reclaimed the lead at 3-2 in the home half. Both teams then posted single tallies a frame later before the visitors took their only lead (5-4) of the game on Sydney Sizemore’s two-out, two-run homer off Study in the fifth inning.
The Lions answered in the sixth to produce the game’s third deadlock. Following Kirkland’s leadoff single and consecutive one-out hits by Study and Carley Martin to load the bases, Kaitlynn Stroud’s run-scoring ground out tied the game at 5-5 heading into the dramatic seventh inning.