SENATOBIA – The #20 Northwest Mississippi Community College softball team (5-3) picked up a double-header split as they hosted National Park College (AR) (5-3) on Thursday afternoon in the first official games of the year at the Ranger Softball Complex, taking down the Nighthawks in the opener 8-0 before falling to them in the second game 4-0.
GAME 1
The Rangers got off to a quick start offensively as they aided Meredith Dearman on the way to her third win of the season in run-rule fashion.
Northwest put their first two batters on base in each of the first three innings and loaded the bases in all of them and scoring three runs in the first and third innings. They nearly had the same feat in the second but a pair of line drive outs on the infield would help the Nighthawks out of the inning.
The big blow in the opening inning was a one out double from Hadley McAtee and a two out RBI single from Emma Jenning would be a similar blow in the third.
Ava Claire Rhoden would help close the game out with a single in the bottom of the fifth inning and an error would allow for Allyson Christmas to score the walk-off run to help Northwest to their second run-shortened win of the season.
Dearman was impeccable on the mound, only giving up a pair of hits and only had one walk and one hit batter. She also picked up four strikeouts in the game. The win also dropped her season ERA to 0.61 which is the third best in the nation for any pitcher with 18 or more innings.
"Dearman all this year has been completely healthy and has been dominant on the mound. I've been so proud of her," Head Coach Chelsea Bramlett said. "She goes out and gets the job done even when she gets in tough situations and she still mows them down. She keeps doing that she's going to be fine."
GAME 2
The Nighthawks got the early edge in the second game of the double header in the second inning when a pair of deep fly balls to center and left field would turn into doubles, scoring Kaitlyn Moreno to give them their first lead of the day.
Catelyn Brown got the ball to start and would run into trouble again in the top of the fourth inning when NPC loaded the bases with just one out but only one run would score on a bases-loaded full-count walk.
Northwest picked up a web-gem in the fifth inning when Rhoden would start a double play on a line out that helped to keep the game in reach for Northwest but there was no answer for Jalea Hawthorn on the mound, who after picking up the loss in the opening game had only given up one hit through five innings.
Another pair of runs would be picked up by NPC in the top of the 6th inning and that would lead to the final score as Northwest was unable to find any runs in the bottom of their final two chances.
The split moves the Rangers to 5-3 on the year as they get ready for a trip to Booneville on Friday where they will have a pair of neutral site games against Wabash Valley College with games scheduled for 4:30 and 6:30 PM.
With more than a week to work on things for the first time since the start of the season, Bramlett said there will be a big focus on playing with more focus on the field.
"We need to work on consistency and hitting the ball on the ground and making adjustments," Bramlett said. "It's a maturity thing that we have to somehow figure out."
Keep up with all of the upcoming games for the Rangers by visiting nwccrangers.com or follow along with Northwest social media accounts.
