CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College softball team closed out the regular season and celebrated "Senior Day" by sweeping a three-game series with rival Delta State University at the MC Softball Complex.

After winning both ends of a doubleheader on Friday, the Lady Choctaws (31-18, 22-10 GSC) stormed out to a big lead and defeated the Lady Statesmen (21-25, 14-19 GSC) by a score of 9-1 in five innings on Saturday.

Prior to Saturday's contest, MC honored their five seniors playing the final home games of their careers: Tylan Buckley, Molli Douglass, Megan Everett, Lauren Mulligan and Haley Thompson.
 

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HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Lady Choctaws scored all the runs they would need in the first inning as sophomore Makenzie Nieto sent a shot over the right fielder's head, clearing the loaded bases to grab a 3-0 advantage.
- Nieto would come home to score on a sacrifice fly by freshman Carly Crawford, and MC took a 4-0 lead after the first frame.
- Senior Tylan Buckley blew the game open in the bottom of the second with her 8th home run of the season, a three-run shot that scored Thompson and junior Katherine Lee.
- MC would put the game out of reach in the third with two more runs, extending the lead to 9-0 as Crawford and Everett came home to score in the frame.
- The Lady Statesmen put up a fight in the fifth with back-to-back hits to open the inning and an RBI fielder's choice by Kristen Mitchell, but MC would get out of the jam for the run-rule victory.
 

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KEY STATS
- The Lady Choctaws would hit .476 (10-of-21) in the game, including going 5-of-7 with runners in scoring position.
- Lee and sophomore Kristen Qualls each had two hits for the Lady Choctaws, while Buckley and Nieto led the way with three RBI apiece.
- Lee and Buckley scored twice, while Nieto tallied her first career triple in the game.
- Buckley's long ball was her 8th of the season and 21st of her career, tying her for the team-lead this season and putting her six career home runs behind Brooke Smitherman (2011-15).
- Freshman Jordan Holifield (5-3) went the distance in the circle for MC, striking out two over the compete-game effort.
- Holifield and the MC pitching staff combined to allow just four earned runs over 19.0 innings this weekend.
 

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NEXT UP
- The Lady Choctaws will head to the Gulf South Conference Tournament next week for the first time since 1995.
- The tournament will be held at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who wrapped up the #1 seed with a series sweep of West Alabama this weekend.
- MC will finish as the #2 or #3 seed heading into the double-elimination format tournament that begins on Thursday.
 

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Mississippi College is a private Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi with an enrollment of over 5,000 students. MC is recently finished their transition process back to NCAA Division II and the Gulf South Conference and will be competing for conference and national championships in the 2016-17 academic year.
 
The athletic department sponsors 17 intercollegiate athletic programs: Baseball, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Football, Golf, Men's and Women's Soccer, Softball, Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field, Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field and Volleyball.
 
For more information on Mississippi College athletics, please contact David Nichols at 601-925-3234 or nichols@mc.edu.