CLINTON, Miss. (WLBT) – Mississippi College took on West Alabama (34-18) in game one of their very first home NCAA Regional Thursday night.

The Choctaws started scoring early, with senior catcher McCall Lee sending her first at-bat over the wall and giving MC their first lead of the game, 2-0. West Alabama found their way around the bases at the top of the 4th inning to make it 2-1, but the Choctaws responded well over the next three innings.

Mississippi College didn’t allow another run for the rest of the ball game as senior pitcher Camryn Bailey finished the day with eight strikeouts.

The Choctaws scored four more runs by the bottom of the seventh inning, winning the contest 6-1.

After coming up short in the Gulf South Conference Championship game last week, the team was determined to get back to their winning ways in NCAA Regional play.

“After the tournament, we all just decided that we need to take things and play our game with it,” Lee said. “Not play anyone else’s game but do what we do. I think today we really showed that. We stayed calm and did exactly what Mississippi College softball does, and if we continue to do that I think this regional will work out in our favor.”

“We played really good today,” Bailey added. ” We had fun today compared to the last game we played. We all played as a team. We all played as one and today was a good start to the tournament.”

“We just played relaxed,” head coach Brooke O’Hair said about the team’s performance in game one. “We had fun with each other and we kept encouraging each other and just did our jobs.”

Mississippi College will take on Tampa in Round 2 of the Clinton Regional on Friday at 12 p.m.

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PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) – On Thursday, the Flame of Hope passed through the Pine Belt as three counties participated in the Area 17 Special Olympic Mississippi torch run.

This is an annual event for athletes that leads up to the games this weekend.

Dozens of law enforcement members passed through Hattiesburg today in the annual Torch Run.

“I don’t run as fast as I used to, but like I said it is just a small part I can play in helping out this great organization,” said Sheriff Charlie Sims, Forrest County Sheriff’s Office.

The run started in Petal this morning and law enforcement ran about 5 kilometers to city hall to pass the torch off to Hattiesburg and then to Lamar County.

This event brings awareness and helps collect money for the Special Olympics leading up to the special games this weekend.

“The torch run is also an event leading up and it kind of branded excitement for them when we leave,” said Area 17 Director Shaunta Fairley.

“It’s a brotherhood when you start talking about our police officers and it’s a good cause as well,” said Petal Mayor Tony Ducker. “Something like this – it’s all about the kids and the Special Olympics.”

The torch run started in north Mississippi this week and is making its way down south to Biloxi.

“I’m going to be carrying the torch all the way to the bank and getting ready for Keesler,” said athlete Adam Kelly.

The torch was lit in Ellisville this afternoon at Ellisville State School, continuing the run with Jones County and Laurel law enforcement.

About 80 people participated in the 0.7 mile run.

Many leaders also shared words of encouragement as the runners took their mark.

“The excitement is in the athletes faces when we show up and get to participate with us and do the run, get to carry the torch and it’s just a great environment when you’re around them guys,” said Chief Deputy and State Director Randy Muffley.

The games take place this weekend at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.

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House plans to reintroduce suffrage bill in 2025

While about 50,000 state residents with past felony convictions will have to wait another year to potentially regain their voting rights, state lawmakers passed 21 individual suffrage bills this past legislative session.

That represents roughly half of the individual requests made between 2021 and 2023 by people who were previously convicted of felonies seeking to regain their voting rights.

In Mississippi, people who commit certain disenfranchising felonies lose the right to vote, and the only recourse for them to have those rights restored is to request a lawmaker to file a bill. That bill may or may not be brought up in a committee, taken up on the House or Senate floor and then advance through the other chamber. If it makes it that far, it then goes on to the governor who may sign the bill, let it pass without his signature or veto it.

House Judiciary B Chairman Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, told the Clarion Ledger the bills his committee moved forward to the floor were from residents who had committed nonviolent felonies and whose sentences had been fully completed, including jail time, fines and other requirements.

The Senate Judiciary Division B Committee, led by Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, took the same policy when considering several bills this year.

Horan said a time comes when individuals who have paid their debt to society start contributing to society by paying taxes and making other contributions.

“There’s no reason those individuals shouldn’t have the right to vote,” Horan said.

The move to restore as many people’s voting rights as possible this year may or may not have come about after House Bill 1609 died in the Senate last month. That bill would have restored the right to vote to all Mississippians who were previously convicted of certain nonviolent felonies.

However, before making its way to the Senate, the House passed HB 1609 99-9, garnering wide bipartisan support, including that of first-year House Speaker Jason White, R-West.

That bill did not sway Sen. Angela Hill, R-Picayune, who chose not to bring the bill up in the Constitution Committee by the legislative deadline to do so. When asked why she let the deadline pass, Hill said the state’s constitution speaks for itself.

Read about suffrage bill dying Voting bill, which would have helped non-violent felons, dies in MS Senate

Disenfranchisement was adopted by the Mississippi Legislature in 1890 with the purpose of stripping voting rights from Black voters by listing crimes lawmakers thought Black people were likely to commit such as murder, timber larceny, possession of stolen property and murder, James K. Vardaman, who served as both governor and U.S. senator at the time, declared.

House Constitution Committee Chairman Price Wallace, R-Mendenhall, said he was disappointed in Hill for failing to pass HB 1609 out of her committee and that he plans to continue working on the legislation throughout the summer and to bring it up during the 2025 legislative session.

“We’re going to get together after session in the summer or early fall, sit down and see if we can draft something that hopefully can please everyone,” Wallace told the Clarion Ledger in April. “I felt that the bill we had was good.”

More on suffrage bills Mississippi lawmakers hope to return 32 peoples’ voting rights

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves as of Wednesday afternoon had not yet signed any approved individual suffrage requests from any state residents.

Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.