In the News...
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[] ICC softball signs Mooreville standout (7/1/2009)
Mooreville's Laura Mitchell is the latest Itawamba Community College softball signee. Lady Indians head coach Chad Case signed the second-team all-area pick by the Daily Journal after the right-handed pitcher led the Lady Troopers with a 17-6 mark on the hill with a 2.20 ERA. Mitchell made the all-division team the last two seasons and was a Northeast Mississippi All-Star selection this year.
"Laura had a super senior season and helped her team make a very deep run in the playoffs," said Case, who is set to begin his third season at the helm of the softball program at ICC. "We're so excited to have Laura in our family and we expect her to come in here and help us out immediately."
Mitchell was credited with 17 of Mooreville's 21 victories this past spring and she follows another former Lady Troopers star, Rachel Tally, who signed last summer with Itawamba and started nearly every game this past spring at ICC and helped the Lady Indians capture a school record 30 victories.
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[] Lady Indians softball ink area all-stars (6/24/2009)
Itawamba Community College has added two more softball signees, Amory's Rebecca Rogers and India Campbell of Itawamba AHS, to its 2009 recruiting class. Rogers is a pitcher that played for the Lady Panthers fast pitch team for six years, while Campbell is a catcher, who also played six years at IAHS.
Rogers was named all-state, all division, and was the team MVP this past season after a 6-4 campaign on the hill with 90 strikeouts and hitting .340 at the plate. In 2008, she was also the team MVP that year as well as making the all-region first team. Rogers, who was a varsity cheerleader at Amory the last four years and captain of the varsity squad, was also the Lady Panther's goalie in soccer the last six years, as well, where she earned all-division honors the last two seasons, received the team defensive MVP and scholar athlete awards and was a Daily Journal All-Area selection a year ago when she received the team's leadership award.
Campbell hit .339 her senior season where she was MVP at Itawamba AHS and stole a team high 21 bases. In addition, she scored 23 runs and drove in another 10 runs. The projected middle infielder at ICC had the highest batting average on the squad the last two years and the senior maid was selected all-division all six years she played at the high school in Fulton.
"We're excited to have both Rebecca and India in our program," said Itawamba head coach Chad Case, who led his 2009 Lady Indians to a school record 30 victories. "Both enjoyed plenty of highlights in high school and if they continue to work hard, we could see more of the same here at ICC."
Both Rogers and Campbell played in last weekend's North-South All-Star games in the Jackson area.
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[] ICC signs area's player of the year (6/15/2009)
Last month, Kimmy Nicholson helped lead Nettleton to a state high school softball championship. Now, the Division 3-3A Player of the Year wants to take Itawamba Community College to that same level. The all-area selection by the Daily Journal, who hit .494 and stole 29 bases this past season, has signed with head coach Chad Case and his softball program at ICC.
"I think ICC is great and Coach Case has a really good program," said Nicholson, who was also named the division's Best Offensive Player as well as making the all division squad. "I hope to help them get to the next level."
Case has led Itawamba to the post-season in his first two years at the helm of the Lady Indians. In fact, this past spring's squad, which set a school record with 30 wins, became the first Itawamba softball team to qualify for the state and Region 23 tournaments in the same year since 2004, when Teddy Bouchillon was the head coach.
Nicholson also won the 3A North Half power lifting championship in her classification and finished second at the state meet.
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[] ICC places trio on all-division first team (5/19/2009)
Itawamba Community College's softball program won a school record 30 games this spring and three of the Lady Indians made the first-team all-north division and another was on the second team.
Former South Pontotoc High School standout, CeCee Austin, picked up where the freshman left off in high school by breaking the College's record for home runs (15) and runs batted in (70) in a season, while hitting a team best .450 and led Itawamba in batting with runners in scoring position (.514), doubles (14), triples (3) and slugging percentage (.881). Joining the middle infielder on the first team is another Pontotoc County native, sophomore third baseman Brooke Tedford of Pontotoc, who broke the school record with 22 stolen bases, led the team with 60 runs scored and a .503 on-base percentage and was second to Austin in hitting at .418, doubles (9), and slugging percentage (.507) .
Rounding out the trio of Lady Indians on the first squad was sophomore pitcher Melissa Russell of Phil Campbell, Ala. The right-hander shattered the school mark for wins in a season (17) and lost just four games, sported a stellar 2.15 ERA and completed 17 of her 23 starts on the hill.
Another former South Pontotoc standout, Heather Whitworth, made the all-north division second team after hitting .369, which was third best on the team among those had more than 20 at bats on the season. The sophomore designated hitter was third on the team in runs batted in (28), hits (41) and doubles (8).
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[] Smithville standout headed to ICC (4/29/2009)
Itawamba Community College's softball program leaves tomorrow (Thursday) for the Region 23 Tournament, but this (Wednesday) afternoon, head coach Chad Case signed a future Lady Indian, Lakin Wigginton of Smithville High School.
Wigginton and her Lady 'Noles teammates are getting set to play in the State Championship and the leadoff hitter Is one of the reasons why. She starts this weekend's action with a .473 batting average, an on-base percentage of .486 and a perfect fielding percentage on the spring.
ICC's current squad has set a school record with 30 wins this spring and will take its 30-14 mark into tomorrow afternoon's contest against LSU-Eunice at the regional in Clinton.
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[] Pair of Lady Indians make All-Region 23 (4/28/2009)
CeCee Austin and Melissa Russell of Itawamba Community College have made the NJCAA All-Region 23 squad. Austin, a former all-area selection out of South Pontotoc, is among the national leaders in home runs (15) and runs batted in (70). Both of those marks are school records and the middle infielder takes a team best .465 batting average into this week's regional in Clinton.
Russell, a right handed pitcher from Phil Campbell, Ala., set a school record for wins in a season as she has won 17, lost just three and sports a 1.96 ERA.
Austin, Russell and the rest of the ICC squad are making their first regional appearance since 2004. The Lady Indians face LSU-Eunice in the first round of the double elimination event Thursday at 3:00 p.m.
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[] Lady Indians get LSU-Eunice at regional (4/26/2009)
Itawamba Community College and LSU-Eunice have had some memorable moments at the Region 23 Baseball Tournament, but this week both schools will square off in the first round of softball's version of the Region 23 event.
Lady Indians head coach Chad Case has led his 30-14 squad to the program's first regional appearance in more than five years. ICC (#6 seed) and LSU-Eunice (#3 seed) will collide in Clinton Thursday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. If Itawamba is victorious, it will face #2 seeded Gulf Coast at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. If the Red and Blue loses in the first round, it will play at 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning in the loser's bracket battle.
ICC, which finished runner-up in the north division this spring, is coming off an 11-9 defeat at the hands of Pearl River CC in the quarterfinals of this past weekend's MACJC State Tournament in Wesson. Mantachie's Mandy Lindsey had a home run, single and drove in three runs in the back and forth contest. South Pontotoc's CeCee Austin, who leads the team in a long list of categories including home runs, runs batted in and batting average, had two hits, including a double and drove in one. Ashley Hardin of Red Bay, Ala. had two hits and drove in a pair while Mooreville's Rachel Tally also showcased a couple hits.
Heather Whitworth of South Pontotoc drove in two runs with a single, while another former Lady Cougar, Tonya Mooneyham, who missed the last couple of weeks with an injury, had the other Lady Indian run batted in as ICC scored five in the third and four more in the sixth.
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[] Milestone wins lift ICC into region tournament (4/20/2009)
Milestone wins lift ICC into region tournament
by Gene Phelps/Daily Journal
FULTON - Itawamba achieved both its goals Monday in its MACJC North Division fastpitch softball doubleheader sweep of rival Northeast.
By beating the Lady Tigers 3-2 and 5-2, the Lady Indians qualified for the Region 23 tournament and captured a program-best 30 victories.
"This is a great feeling," said ICC centerfielder Rachel Tally, whose defensive gem in the opener helped the Indians' cause. "We played together. We wanted it real bad and it showed."
Tally ran down a potential run-producing fly ball at the fence by Northeast's Samantha Yarber in the fifth inning.
Next up for ICC (30-13, 17-7) is the state tournament, scheduled to begin Friday at the South champion, Co-Lin. The Lady Indians are the No. 2 seed from the North.
Northeast (16-20, 13-11), if North leader Northwest at least splits with Holmes today, will also qualify as the No. 4 seed. If Holmes were to sweep the Rangers, a one-game playoff between Northeast and Holmes would have to be played for the fourth spot.
ICC needed some late-game heroics to reach its goals.
In the opener, Cyndal Cleveland's eighth-inning single into the gap in left-center drove in the winning run.
"I just wanted to put the ball in the air," she said. "I knew Brooke (Tedford) would score from third on a tag even if I flied out."
With her team down 2-0 headed into the sixth inning, Northeast's Emily Barnes opened with a solo home run off Indians starter Melissa Russell, who recorded 19 strikeouts in two games, including 13 in the opener. In the seventh, the Tigers used another long ball to force extra innings when Devin Reader belted a solo shot off Russell.
"One was a low rise ball that didn't rise," said ICC's sophomore right-hander (17-3). "The other was a curve that rose too much. They smoked them."
In the second game, Northeast took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the second before Tally tied the contest with a bunt single.
ICC's next batter, slugging shortstop CeCee Austin, stepped out and ripped an outside offering from freshman left-hander Amy Blakeney over the fence for a three-run walk-off homer.
"They were trying to pitch it out," said Austin, who added to her school-record total of 15 home runs. "I knew it was gone."
Northeast coach Jody Long had called a pitchout for Austin, respecting her power.
Blakeney "didn't get it out far enough," he said. "She's a 17-year-old freshman. We didn't make a good pitch and (Austin) made us pay."
ICC coach Chad Case added, "With CeCee at the plate, you can't get it out there far enough. She gives you a chance every time she's at the plate."
Emily Barnes homered in the third inning for one of Northeast's two runs in the frame. The other scored on a ground ball by Blakeney.
An RBI single by Gretta Burgett produced ICC's lone run in the third.
Mandy Lindsey had an RBI single in the first game for ICC while Cleveland plated a run with a fielder's choice grounder.
Both games were broadcast on ICC's radio network. It was the first time ever, these two rivals had one of their softball doubleheaders broadcast.
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[] Austin/Tedford/Russell break school records (4/12/2009)
After an impressive sweep of Mississippi Delta in Moorhead on Friday afternoon, 3-0 and 15-0, ICC continues to hold down second place in the north at 14-4, 27-10 overall.
South Pontotoc's CeCee Austin is second in the nation in runs batted in with 64 and fifth in the nation in home runs with 13. Both of those marks are school records. The freshman phenom is also among the nation's leaders in batting average at .480.
Pontotoc's Brooke Tedford has also broken the school record for stolen bases in a season. The sophomore third baseman from Pontotoc, who is second on the team in hitting at .456, has 21 stolen bases on the campaign.
Finally, sophomore pitcher Melissa Russell of Phil Campbell, Ala. broke the school record for wins in a season. The right-hander pitched a pair of shutouts at Delta to give her a 13-2 mark on the year and her ERA has dropped below the two runs per game category at 1.96.
ICC will travel to Scooba on Wednesday to face East Mississippi Community College before hosting first place Northwest on Saturday at noon.
The Lady Indians will wrap up the regular season on Monday (April 20) by entertaining rival Northeast. The doubleheader against the Lady Tigers will be broadcast on FM 95 (95.7) and on the College Web site, www.iccms.edu. beginning at 1:40 p.m.
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