FULTON, Miss. – Seven late runs by No. 10 East Central ends the No. 3 Indians season with a 12-7 loss in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament.
The Indians (41-10) trailed 5-0 after two innings, but rallied to take a 6-5 lead after scoring three runs in both the fourth and fifth frames.
Bailie Springfield(Mantee) drove in the Indians first run with a single in the fourth and Samantha Conley(Mandeville, La) later scored on an error and Macey Cox(Troy, Tenn.) scored on a ground ball.
In the fifth, Conley doubled to score two runs and tie the game at 5-5 before Shelby Newsom(Cleveland) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to put the Indians up by one.
East Central would quickly regain the lead in the bottom of the fifth scoring three runs on a pair of sacrifice flies and, two hits and two errors. Cori Childs(New Site) scored on an error in the top of the sixth to once again pull the Indians within one run, 8-7.
In the bottom of the sixth, East Central would put the game out of reach scoring four runs on three hits including a three run home run to earn the 12-7 victory.
The Indians historic season came to a close earlier than they had hoped but this year's team set program records with most wins in a season (41), highest ranking (3) and saw the program's first 20-game winner in the circle in Springfield.
Olivia Burns(Grenada) also earned her spot in ICC history with 19 wins which is tied for second all-time in the program. Childs also, set the career steals record combining for 78 stolen bases, 29 as a freshman and 49 in her sophomore season.
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