By Myra Bean

Kasey Kelsay had a room full of supporters as she signed a national letter of intent to play fastpitch softball at Meridian Community College Tuesday morning.

Head coach for Meridian, Robert Eakins, brought the papers.

Eakins was South Panola Lady Tiger head coach Ashleigh Hicks’ coach when she played at Meridian.

“Her first year was our first year to play fastpitch,” Eakins said. “We won the division both her years there.”

Eakins said Hicks’ teammates were the type to tell him when they were going to practice. He was also coaching other sports at the time and he said once he had a baseball game and they were leaving at 3 p.m.

“So I told them no practice,” he said laughing. “They told me we could practice from 10 to 1. I could clean up from 1 to 2 and rest from 2 to 3 and then go play.”

Eakins has been coaching at Meridian 20 years, 16 as head coach.

Kelsay is the second baseman for the defending 5A state champion Lady Tigers.

She is usually the No. 5 batter and has 16 hits and 12 runs on the season. She has two doubles, two triples and one home run. On defense she has a .952 fielding percentage with 20 put outs, 20 assists and two errors.

Also on hand was her mother Charlotte, her youth coaches Preston Lawrence and Damon Plummer and the entire Lady Tiger team.