FULTON, Miss. – ICC overcame cold hitting and held off a late rally from East Mississippi to pick up a 2-1 win in Game 1 on Tuesday.
The Indians (29-6, 16-2 MACJC) took a 1-0 lead when Cori Childs (New Site) reached on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Samantha Conley (Madeville, La.) in the bottom of the first inning.
The Lions (17-21, 13-10 MACJC) put a runner on third in the top of the second with one out in the inning, but Bailie Springfield (Mantee) picked up her second strikeout of the game and a pop out in foul territory to Shelby Newsom (Cleveland) to escape the inning with no damage done.
Meg Sullivan (Springville, Ala.) singled and stole second to start the bottom half of the fourth before scoring on a double by Macey Cox (Troy, Tenn.) to give the Indians a 2-0 lead.
East Mississippi put runners in scoring position in the top of the fifth and sixth innings before scoring their first run to cut the Indians' lead in half in the seventh.
Carly Thompson was hit by a pitch to start the inning and scored on a one-out triple by Layton Sills. A fly ball to shallow left and a quick throw to the infield by Sullivan kept the tying run on third and Springfield closed the door on the threat with her seventh strikeout to end the game.
Springfield scattered five hits and struck out seven in the complete game effort to improve to 16-2 on the season.
Sullivan went 2-for-2 with a run scored and a sacrifice fly to lead the way at the plate. Cox added a double and Joanna Vasquez (Southaven) added a single to round out the Indians' four hits.
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