SENATOBIA – Freshman Harley Smith had a big afternoon, finishing 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, two home runs and five RBIs, and also picked up her 12th win in the circle to help lead Northwest to a sweep over Meridian by 7-2 and 8-5 finals to clinch a spot in the MACJC Best-of-3 Playoffs this weekend.

Northwest improved to 22-18 overall and closed MACJC play at 16-12 to finish fifth in the standings. The Rangers will travel to the No. 4 seed and nationally-ranked East Central (40-6) on Friday-Saturday, with the winner advancing to the MACJC Tournament.

After a one-year hiatus, the Rangers return to the postseason for the 11th time in hall of fame head coach Mike Rowan's 14 seasons.

Game 1 – Northwest 7, Meridian 2

Northwest jumped all over Lady Eagle starter Tiana Boutte with a five-run first inning, highlighted by Smith's two-run home run to left, and cruised to a 7-2 game one victory to officially clinch a playoff spot.

An error and RBI-groundout from Morgan Gresham extended the Ranger lead to 7-0 after four.

Meridian broke the shutout in the sixth with Mycahla Howard's two-run homer to center but that's as close as they would get.

Smith scattered seven hits, two runs and five strikeouts/no walks to improve to 12-9 on the year. Her third strikeout of the game put her over the century mark for the season, just the sixth Ranger in program history to accomplish the feat.

Kailey Walker, Sallie Rose Carver and Smith each had multiple hits, with Allison Williams adding a two-run single.

Game 2 – Northwest 8, Meridian 5

Northwest played 18 different players in its final regular season game and rallied from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits in the latter innings with a five-run sixth to complete the sweep with an 8-5 win.

Leeah Henson (2-1) tossed 6.2 solid innings and three scoreless to start the game before making way for Tori Luke's second save of the season.

Trailing 3-1 in the fourth, an error and Smith's solo shot to straight-away center knotted the game at 3-3. Pinch runner Amber Helmes advanced to third on Makenzie Crutcher's fly out and scored off an error at third to make it 3-2 before Smith's second home run of the day and third of her career.

Mia Johnson's solo blast to left put Meridian back on top, 4-3, in the sixth before a five-run bottom of the sixth for the Rangers extended their lead to 8-4.

Meridian didn't go quietly in the seventh, however, rallying with two outs and plating a run on Brianna Duquette's RBI-single to make it 8-5. Luke entered for Henson with runners at the corners and two outs and got Johnson swinging for the final out.

The best-of-3 playoff series at East Central gets underway Friday, April 28. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. Game two of the series is at 1 p.m. Saturday, game three, if necessary will follow immediately after. Cost of admission is $5/day.

Watch all games this weekend courtesy of ECCC at www.eccc.edu/eccc-media. Live stats also available through Northwest.