MGCCC Lady Bulldogs take 2nd at Region 23 Tournament

The MGCCC Lady Bulldogs with their Region 23 Second Place hardware.

CLINTON---Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College couldn’t cool off the red hot offense of East Central in the Region 23 Title Game as the Lady Warriors pounded out 12 hits and defeated the Lady Bulldogs 7-1 to win their first ever Region 23 Crown. Despite the loss, Gulf Coast (36-15) qualified for its third NJCAA D-II National Tournament in the last four years.

“This team dug in this week and did what it had to do to get us in this position,” said Gulf Coast head coach Kenneth Long. “We came is as the reigning Region 23 Champions and we’re disappointed that we didn’t win, but we’ve had a great season.”

Kayla Moran rounds third after a solo homer against East Central at the Region 23 Tournament May 8.

Gulf Coast got on the board first in the top of the third inning when Kayla Moran smacked her first homer of the season over the center field fence to give the Lady Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.

East Central responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-1 lead then erupted for five straight hits off of Gulf Coast pitcher Bayleigh Babin (4-2) to take a commanding 7-1 lead.

Meanwhile the Lady Bulldog offense could only scatter six hits off of East Central pitcher Taylor Bailey in the loss, two of those hits coming from Courtney Fairley.

A day earlier, East Central (44-9-1) defeated Gulf Coast 3-1 to send the Lady Bulldogs to the loser’s bracket of the double elimination event where the Lady Bulldogs edged archrival Pearl River 4-2 to get to Saturday’s title game.