CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College softball team opened their Gulf South Conference series with Montevallo with a hard-fought 3-0 victory on Friday night at the MC Softball Complex.

The Lady Choctaws improved to 26-8 with a 10-5 GSC record, while the Falcons fell to 17-19 with an 8-11 league mark.
 

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HOW IT HAPPENED

>> The Lady Choctaws scored all the runs they needed in the first inning as junior Carly Crawford notched her first triple of the season, scoring freshman Annemarie Peavy to give MC the early lead.
>> The game remained 1-0 until the fifth when junior Shayla McKissock led off with a double and came home to score on a sacrifice fly by junior Morgan Bradford.
>> The final run of the game scored for the Lady Choctaws in the sixth as senior Alexia Harmon touched the plate on a groundout by McKissock.
>> Senior Cori Cooper recorded her first 1-2-3 inning of the night in the seventh to close out her second straight shutout of the week.
 

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KEY STATS

>> Harmon led the offense going 3-for-3 with a double and three runs scored.
>> McKissock also had a multi-hit night, scoring a run and driving in a run.
>> Cooper (8-5) struck out eight with four walks and four hits allowed over the 7.0 innings.
>> Abbey Pratt (5-4) took the loss for the Falcons, giving up nine hits and three earned runs.
>> Brianna Stella had a team-high two hits for Montevallo.
 

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NEXT UP

>> The two teams will wrap up the series on Saturday with a doubleheader. With the threat of rain on Saturday evening, the twin-bill has been moved up to 12:00 p.m.
 

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Mississippi College is a private Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi with an enrollment of over 5,000 students. MC 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.