SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The win didn't come easy, but #13 Northwest Mississippi Community College (29-20) staved off elimination with a 4-0 win over #19 Richard Bland College (32-27) on Wednesday afternoon in the 2026 NJCAA Division II Softball World Series, keeping their season alive into Thursday with the victory.
"It started to come together there towards the end, so that is a good sign before we play tomorrow, so hopefully we can keep it going," Head Coach Chelsea Bramlett said. "Of course, Meredith had another wonderful game. Catelyn Brown came in and got the last out, which is a big confidence booster for her, and hopefully, we are starting to calm down and settle in a little bit."
The win was keyed by another dominant performance in the circle by Meredith Dearman, who improved to 21-8 on the year with the shutout of the Statesmen, and some clutch hitting in the top of the sixth inning from the duo of Lillianna Cates and Sela Mancini to break open a scoreless tie.
"I think we are finally starting to get over, I wouldn't say a hump, but we were a little rusty in a sense, and I think today we finally broke it off and got some good momentum going, and we have finally seen enough pitching to get our swings back to normal."
Northwest was putting the ball in play in the early going, but some miscues on the bases ended up costing them, with a fielder's choice cutting down Ava Claire Rhoden on third base for the first out of the inning, and Handley McAtee getting caught stealing second for the second out.
Another leadoff runner was thrown out when Sela Mancini got on with a walk in the second but was caught trying to move up on a failed hit-and-run.
The Third inning was more of the same after Lindsey Gillis reached on an error and moved up to second after a single with two outs from Ava Claire Rhoden, but another fly out to left field would end the rally.
Meanwhile, in the circle, Dearman faced the minimum through the first two innings, and the only runner through three came from a one-out walk, but a strikeout and a groundout ended the inning with the game still scoreless going to the back half.
A leadoff double from Cates saw her get to third on a sacrifice bunt from Mancini, but two infield popouts would strand her at third.
The Statesmen broke up the no-hitter from Dearman in the bottom of the fourth inning when a two-out single put a runner on for Richard Bland, and their pinch-runner moved up to second with a stolen base, but another strikeout from Dearman would end the inning and send it to the fifth inning.
The Rangers left Aubrey Massing at second after a two-out double to center, and in the bottom half of the fifth, Richard Bland had their best chance to score when they moved a runner to second in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs, they punched a single to left field, but the Northwest defense stood tall with a throw from Mancini forcing the runner back to third and a second assist from Gillis helping to pick up a tag out on the 9-2-5 out to end the inning.
After having threats in every inning, the Rangers finally broke through in the top of the sixth after a leadoff single by Handley McAtee was turned into a two-base hit on a throwing error by the Statesmen.
That was when Cates stepped up and followed her with a grounder to left field, breaking the tie and scoring McAtee from second to put the Rangers ahead 1-0.
"We owed it to Meredith to score a run," Cates said. "It was a high-pressure moment, but it was just one you had to execute. We needed that run to get us ahead, and I did my job to get Aubrey in."
One batter and a new pitcher later, Mancini doubled down on the success, blasting the first homerun of the tournament over the center field fence for her seventh of the year and a 3-0 lead for Northwest.
The Rangers added another run to their lead in the top of the seventh inning when Mancini came up with two outs and singled to left field to score Aubrey Massing after she had led the inning off with a double to left center field, padding the lead to 4-0.
"It is a boost of confidence, and our bats roll when one person gets started, and we can actually string hits together, and we are scoring. When we start hitting together, we can score some runs and get up and get going."
Dearman took the game to the seventh and got two outs in the frame before she was replaced by Brown, who got a fly out from the final batter, and the Rangers were able to survive to another day at the national tournament.
The win for Dearman improved her to 21-8 on the season and had 11 strikeouts, only giving up two walks and three hits to the Statesmen. She now has 203 strikeouts on the season, becoming just the second Ranger to accomplish the feat in a single season, joining Gabby Dickerson, who finished the 2022 season with 239 strikeouts.
"We owe it to Meredith to win this whole thing," Cates said. "She's given it all she has, and we owe her the same. If you don't want to play for yourself, you at least need to play for Meredith."
The win will move the Rangers into the second round of the elimination bracket, where they will face #8 Pima Community College Aztecs (47-9) at 9:00 AM ET/8:00 AM CT. The winner of that game will move on to the 9:30 PM ET/8:30 PM CT game with the opponent to be decided.
Bramlett said that the sophomores aren't shying away from the fact that they want to get some payback on the Aztecs, who eliminated the Rangers from last year's World Series field.
"I told my sophomores that we had a chance to play them and they were excited about it, wanting to knock them out like they did to us last year, so there is a little bit of a revenge factor in there," she said.
Keep up with all of the action at the 2026 NJCAA Division II Softball World Series by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following along with Northwest social media accounts.
