BOONEVILLE – No. 6 Jones College powered its way to a doubleheader sweep of No. 20 Northeast Mississippi Community College on Sunday at The Plex, using a late surge in the opener and an offensive avalanche in the nightcap to win 10-6 and 19-9.
Jones improved to 41-8, 20-4 in the MACCC with the sweep and closes out the regular season on Saturday at home against Itawamba. They travel to No. 17 Hinds on Tuesday.
In the finale, Jones set new season-highs in hits (25) and runs (19).
Jones 10, Northeast 6
Jones broke open a tight game with a six-run sixth inning to take control of the opener after Northeast had battled back and briefly taken the lead.
The Bobcats wasted no time getting on the board. An RBI-double from
Mabry Eason and an RBI-single by
Mary Kimble Price gave Jones a 2-0 lead in the first and the lead grew to 3-0 in the second on a run-scoring groundout by
Laney Little.
Northeast answered in the second inning with RBIs from Adin Shelton and Leah Walker to cut the deficit to 3-2, then tied the game in the fourth on Shelton's solo home run to center.
After Jones regained a 4-3 edge in the fifth on an error-assisted run, the Tigers surged ahead in the bottom half.
Solo homers from Chloe Skelton and Shelton put Northeast in front 5-4 and shifted the momentum.
But that momentum didn't last long.
Jones erupted in the sixth, capitalizing on multiple Northeast miscues. The inning featured five hits and four unearned runs as the Bobcats plated six runs to flip a 5-4 deficit into a 10-5 advantage. Key RBI contributions came from
Annaston Tate,
Addy Shorter and
Chloe Jenkins as Jones took full control.
Northeast added a run in the seventh, but it wasn't enough to overcome the decisive inning.
Morgan Landry (7-2) earned the win in relief for Jones, while Sophie Gant took the loss for Northeast.
Offensively, Jones tallied 13 hits, while Northeast finished with 11 but committed five costly errors.
Claire Andersen was 1-for-4 in the leadoff spot, drawing a walk and stealing two bases to become the school's all-time stolen base leader with 86 and counting.
Jones 19, Northeast 9
The nightcap turned into an offensive showcase and Jones had far more firepower.
The Bobcats pounded out 25 hits and scored in five different innings, pulling away from Northeast after a back-and-forth start.
Jones struck first with RBI hits from Tate and Shorter in the opening inning, but Northeast answered quickly and eventually grabbed a 5-3 lead by the fourth, highlighted by Gant's three-run homer in the third.
Jones exploded for six runs in the fifth inning, sparked by Eason's game-tying home run and a series of clutch hits from
Marlee Dampeer,
Laney Little and Eason again.
The outburst gave Jones a 9-5 lead, though Northeast answered with three runs of its own to keep things close at 9-8.
The Bobcats then put the game out of reach.
A five-run sixth inning, featuring RBI-doubles from Shorter and Little and a two-run single by Price, extended the lead to 14-8.
After Northeast added a run in the bottom half, Jones closed the scoring with another five-run frame in the seventh, highlighted by RBI hits from
Madison Sawyer, Andersen, Eason and Tate.
Eason led the offensive onslaught with four RBIs, while Little went 4-for-5 with three RBIs and four runs scored. Price and Tate also drove in multiple runs as Jones' lineup produced from top to bottom.
Breelyn Cain earned the win in the circle, with
Abigail Lindsey securing the save.