Booneville, MS –Northeast Softball kicked off the 2026 season this past weekend with a 4-0 start with the Tigers taking on Southwest Tennessee and Motlow State in a pair of doubleheaders that resulted in Northeast sweeping past their opponents in all four games in run rule fashion. 

Friday saw the beginning of the season for Northeast with a doubleheader against Southwest Tennessee where Leah Walker hammered out a home run in the first at bat for the Tigers to lead off a five-run first inning and Northeast never looked back. Another homer from Walker in the bottom of the second grew the lead out to 7-1 while Bailey Houston connected on a triple to drive in a pair of runs to make it a 10-1 lead entering the top of the fifth. Emma Abrams helped finish off game one with her seventh strikeout of the afternoon to lock up a run rule win in game one in five innings of action. 

Game two of the day looked similar to the first with the Tigers taking a quick 5-1 lead through the first two innings thanks to a 2-RBI triple from Adin Shelton with Northeast continuing to find their way around the bases. Sophie Grant held Southwest Tennessee to two runs and allowed only three hits through six innings on the mound before the Tigers offense helped end game two early with Shelton stealing third on a wild pitch and making her way home on a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 series sweep on day one of the 2026 season. 

On Saturday Northeast matched up against Motlow State in another doubleheader with the Tigers once again taking a pair of run rule wins to improve to 4-0 on opening weekend. Game one against the Bucks was a slow start for NEMCC as they fell behind through the first three innings 3-1 before exploding offensively with a combined 10 runs between the fourth and fifth innings that had three players record RBI doubles to run up the score for an 11-3 run rule win. 

Northeast ended the weekend with a shutout win in game two against Motlow State with Abrams taking to the mound and striking out six batters while allowing only three hits throughout the contest. A home run bomb out to right field from Walker followed by AB McKay's rocket out of the park added another pair of runs to help Northeast to a 9-0 start in the first inning. McKay stepped back up to the plate in the bottom of the second and connected on her second bomb of the game with Jeoreia Henry adding one of her own right after to keep building the lead in what was an eventual 18-0 win to complete a perfect 4-0 weekend for the Tigers. 

Northeast Softball improves to 4-0 to start their 2026 campaign with their next outings coming later this week with another pair of doubleheaders with the Tigers taking on Mineral Area and Frontier this Friday and Saturday at the Plex.