Booneville, Miss. – Haley Christian seems to be settling in nicely behind the plate for the Northeast Mississippi Community College softball team.

Christian handed the Tiger pitching staff to near perfection on Tuesday, March 11, but visiting East Mississippi Community College swept the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) doubleheader by 7-2 and 4-1 scores at David Carnell Memorial Field.

The freshman had not played the position of catcher until her senior season in high school at Corinth, but Christian continues to show improvement in each outing at Northeast.

"I've learned my pitchers very well," said Christian. "Each one of them is different and I've figured out when one of them is one and one of them is off. Catching is a very hard job, so I like that the coaching staff has faith in me."

Christian currently boasts a .976 fielding percentage, second highest on the team behind fellow Alcorn County native Chelsea Buntin, and has 114 putouts, the sixth most in the MACJC.

She caught her sixth runner of the season attempting to steal in the third of game two. Christian gunned Taylor Hackney to record the first out of the inning and stop an East Mississippi scoring threat.

"(Christian) is a hard working kid and that's one of the things we've kind of gone after in our program," Northeast head coach Jody Long said. "She cares a lot about it. She's still a work in progress but overcomes a lot of it with her effort."

The Lions would take a 4-0 lead in the following frame, though, on a triple into the left-centerfield gap by Corey Dawkins and a RBI single by Abby Roberts.

Buntin got the Tigers on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth on a single just past the shortstop that plated Trenisha King.

Northeast threatened again in their final at bat when Bre Agnew doubled with two outs. But Hackney (5-4) left her stranded at second base to secure the victory.

Bianca Chagolla (3-6) gave up just one earned run and struck out four in a complete game effort in the circle.

King had four base hits in the nightcap, one of them a double. Buntin and Chagolla had two base knocks apiece as well.

East Mississippi (16-12, 5-3) quickly took a 3-0 advantage in their opening at bat of the lid lifter. Roberts tripled to score two and later came home on a RBI single by Pepper Baker.

The Tigers got one run back in the bottom half. Haleigh Moffett hit a rocket into the right field gap and made it safely to third base for her third career triple.

Buntin's infield single three batters later brought Moffett in and cut the Lions' lead to 3-1.

Roberts came through for East Mississippi again in the second with a two RBI hit to left field. Her base knock coupled with a fielding error by Northeast put the Lions ahead 6-1.

Christian proved she can do damage offensively as well. She laced a double between the leftfielder and centerfielder that plated Chagolla to make the score 6-2 in favor of the Lions.

Northeast put ladies into scoring position in both the third and fourth innings, but the Tigers (7-15, 2-4) could not push another run across.

Halie Green (7-5) scattered six hits to grasp the win while Buntin (3-7) gave up just one earned run and struck out a career-high 12 in the loss.

"We had opportunities and did some good things defensively," said Long. "The biggest difference in these ballgames right now is that we're making mistakes and our opponents are capitalizing off of them."

Christian notched the fourth multiple hit game of her career at Northeast while Moffett joined her with two base knocks.