Wednesday softball: Hernando falls in championship series opener

Photo: Hernando’s Jayla Sites (6) makes a toss to Callie Desmond (19) for an out during Wednesday’s MHSAA 7A championship series game one loss to Northwest Rankin.

May 14, 2025 – Northwest Rankin opened the MHSAA 7A softball title defense with a solid 8-3 victory over the North Half champion Hernando Lady Tigers Wednesday evening at the Southern Miss Softball Complex in Hattiesburg.  The win puts the Lady Cougars within one victory of repeating as state champion, which they won last year against Hernando.  

Northwest Rankin scored at least one run in six of the game’s seven innings against the Lady Tigers with seven hits and taking advantage of three Lady Tiger errors.  Hernando answered with a pair of runs in the fourth and one more in the fifth, also getting seven hits in the contest.  

Jayla Sites led the Hernando offense with a pair of hits. Macie Dever Boaz and Hayden Hodge each doubled in the game.  

Haylee Jackson took the loss in the circle for Hernando with four runs, two earned runs, and six hits. Jackson struck out two and walked one.  Maddie Sowell entered the game in relief and also allowed four runs but only one of them was earned. Sowell allowed one hit, struck out three and walked one in four innings of work.  

Hernando fell to 33-3 with the loss while Northwest Rankin improved to 31-4. Hernando tagged one of the Lady Cougars’ four losses with a 5-2 victory in March.  

Game two of the championship series will be Thursday at 5:45 p.m. A third game, if needed, will be at a time to be determined.