Home Opener Statement: No. 12 Indians Roll to Sweep of Jackson State

FULTON, Miss. - The home opener looked like a highlight reel and a scoreboard glitch, all in the span of one afternoon.

The No. 12 Indians came out swinging in both ends of the doubleheader and swept Jackson State Community College at home, taking Game 1 8-4 before detonating for a 22-0 run-rule in five innings in Game 2.

Game 1: No. 12 Indians 8, Jackson State 4

ICC put the Green Jays in chase mode immediately with a four-run bottom of the first, sparked by back-to-back thunder. Ella Duhon ripped a line-drive homer to right-center, then Anna Thomas Luke followed with a solo shot to straightaway center as Cresap Field woke up fast.

Jackson State scratched back two in the top of the third, but the Indians answered right away and answered loud. AB Marlar turned on a pitch in the bottom half and lifted a two-run homer to restore separation and push ICC back in full control.

The Indians kept adding on from there. Kaylin Lynch lined an RBI single in the fifth to bring home Alana Dossey. In the sixth, Skylar Partlow made it 8-2 by coming home on a groundout. Jackson State made one last noise with two in the seventh, but ICC shut down any late drama and finished the opener off.

Gracyn Snell earned the win, allowing two runs, all unearned, on four hits with three strikeouts across 4.2 innings.

Game 2: No. 12 Indians 22, Jackson State 0 (5 innings)

If the first game was a statement, the second was ICC emptying the full clip in the first inning and never letting up. The Indians hung 10 runs in the bottom of the first and the rout was on.

Maddie Porter lit the fuse with a towering two-run homer, then Marlar followed with a solo shot. From there it turned into relentless traffic and pressure. Duhon scored when Taylar Shands reached on an error. Morgan Green beat out an infield single that scored Zoe Goodman. Victoria Fields reached on an error that plated Shands. Green later scored on Snell's sac fly. Porter doubled to right to drive in Dossey and Fields, and the inning kept moving when Marlar singled in Porter.

ICC came back in the third and dropped eight more. Snell reached on an error that scored Dossey and Fields, then Marlar delivered again with a single to bring home Snell. Duhon doubled to right to score Porter and Houston-Rae Grantham, and Green blew the game wide open with a bases-loaded triple to left that cleared Duhon, Goodman and Macie Starling.

The Indians added four more in the fourth, cashing in on another error to score Grantham before Green, Neely Hodum and the rest of the lineup kept stacking RBI singles to close the scoring at 22.

In the circle, Ramsey Montgomery made it clean and quick: a one-hitter over five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and no walks.