Lady Wildcats split doubleheader with Coastal Alabama North
POPLARVILLE, Miss.- The Pearl River Lady Wildcats split a hard fought two games Saturday against Coastal Alabama-North, losing the first game 7-0 but winning the second 9-6.
PRCC coach Leigh White felt that had the Lady Wildcats played to their potential in the first game they could have gotten the sweep.
"Our kids fought back in the second game and we will take this momentum with us to Southwest but if we play like we can play we sweep that team today," White said.
GAME 1: CAN 7, PRCC 0
The Lady Wildcats (10-8) struggled to string hits together in the first contest against solid pitching and were limited to just three.
Coastal Alabama (10-19) opened the scoring with a single run in the first inning and tacked on three more in the third. The Eagles added three runs combined in the fourth and fifth innings to cap the scoring.
"Coastal Alabama came off the bus ready to play and we did not come out ready to play in that first game," White said. "We struggled at the plate early."
Mary Grace Turner (Leakesville; Greene County) led PRCC at the plate with a double.
GAME 2: PRCC 9, CAN 6
The second game of the night saw Pearl River open up the offense.
BreAnna Corken (Watson, La.; Live Oak) got things started with a two-run single to center field, scoring Neely McLeod (Lucedale; George County) and Krista Robles (Destrehan, La.).
Coastal Alabama struck back scoring three runs in the fourth.
Pearl River gave up three more runs in the top of the the fifth before White turned to Gracie Barnett (Vancleave) to extinguish the Eagles' hot bats.
Neely McLeod had three hits and two RBIs for the Lady Wildcats in their 9-6 win over Coastal Alabama North Saturday (KRISTI HARRIS/PRCC ATHLETICS)
"I could tell Gracie came into that ball game to take control in that circle and that's exactly what she did," White said.
McLeod got the Lady Wildcats back in business with a solo shot to make it a 6-3 game in the bottom of the fifth.
It was in the bottom off the sixth where Pearl River really got things going at the plate.
Turner got things started with an RBI single to score Abigail Thexton (Sumrall). Autumn Clark (Runnelstown; Perry Central) then scored Turner with a RBI double. McLeod hit a double of her own to score Clark and tie the game 6-6.
Elizabeth Taggard (Picayune) added to the frenzy with a huge two-run double and Dallas Blaker (Bay St. Louis; Our Lady Academy) capped the scoring with an RBI single of her own.
McLeod led the team in hits with three while sharing the team lead for RBIs at two with Taggard and Corkern.
"We finally strung things together at the plate in this game," White said. "This group can hit and they finally got it going."
Barnett earned her first collegiate win in relief, tossing 2 1/3 scoreless frames.
UP NEXT
The Lady Wildcats will return to action Wednesday when they take on Southwest in Summit.
For the latest on Pearl River Community College athletics, follow us on Twitter (@PRCCAthletics) and Facebook (PRCCAthletics).
