Fans of the great softball rivalry between Copiah-Lincoln Community College and their foes from Ellisville, Jones College, are hoping for a period of dry weather on Saturday at 2 p.m.

That’s when the Wolves and Bobcats are scheduled to face off in a single game to decide the NJCAA Region 23 Championship. Both CLCC and Jones have punched their respective tickets to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament later this month in Oxford, Alabama by making it this far.

Co-Lin was ranked no. 3 in the last NJCAA poll and comes in on a 15-game winning streak and has an overall record of 43-4 for head coach Meleah Howard, assistant coach Amber Beall, and assistant coach Terry Bauer.

The last loss for coach Howard’s squad was a 5-4 defeat at home to Jones on April 2. All four losses this season for CLCC have come by one run, with Jones being the only team from Mississippi to best the Wolves. The other three losses were early season setbacks in a tournament played in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Jones is 46-8 and ranked no. 7 in the nation. The Bobcats were beaten 6-2 by Co-Lin in the first game of their matchup a month ago.

If the weather holds off, the teams are guaranteed to play in front of a big crowd on Saturday, as they did last year when Jones won 7-5 in this same game.

When the schools played in Wesson earlier this season, the bleachers were packed with all of the young softball talent from this part of the state. Some of those watching were CLCC softball signees and some were verbal commits and some of the smallest girls are dreaming about playing for the Wolves one day.

Co-Lin freshman catcher Stella Roberts knows what it feels like to be sitting in those bleachers, dreaming of being on the field where she now plays.

“I can remember watching them in 2023, when they won the national championship, hoping they would offer me one day,” said Roberts.

A graduate of Copiah Academy, she played for C-L assistant Bauer in high school.

If you were to sum up the 2025 edition of Co-Lin softball in one word, it would be opportunistic.

Roberts splits starts behind the plate with her fellow freshman catcher Morgan Chisolm (Madison Central) and the pair are a perfect example of that opportunistic thread that runs through this team.

In 57 at-bats this season, Roberts has eight home runs, five doubles, and has driven in 28 runs.

Her last home run was a two-run shot on Tuesday in a 5-3 win over Northwest Mississippi Community College that put Co-Lin into the championship game.

Roberts swears she’s not thinking home run when she gets to the plate, just to hit the ball hard.

“I’m just thinking base hit, but I am always trying to make the most of every at-bat I get,” said Roberts. “It makes me wait for a good pitch.”

Chisolm has been equally impressive with the bat in her hands, hitting .395 with eight doubles, one triple, and five home runs in 81 at-bats.

While Roberts grew up waiting for her opportunity to play at Co-Lin, sophomore first baseman Avery Williams wasn’t even sure how to pronounce it when she was a senior, playing softball just south of Memphis at Lewisburg High in Desoto County.

“We played at Northwest Rankin High my senior year, afterwards my high school coach told me they gave my number to a coach from Co-Lin,’ said Williams. “I thought it was pronounced colon and had no idea where Wesson was.”

When you talk about being opportunistic, there might not be anyone on the roster better to personify that than Williams.

Last season as a freshman outfielder, she got a total of eight at bats during the season, with six of them being hits.

“I never thought about transferring,” said Williams. “I just knew I needed to go home in the summer and start working. I did a lot of hitting off the tee to improve my bat.”

In 2025, Williams has gone from eight turns at the plate to 149 at-bats which has resulted in 11 doubles, one triple, five home runs and 29 RBIs.

Williams has a big grin on her face every time she takes the field, as she’s always in the middle of a pre-game dance party that the team throws in front of its dugout.

There are often props and wigs and an entire routine set to “Steal Her Man” by Taylor Girlz.

Sophomore pitcher/slugger Taylor Efferson, who signed with NCAA Division I Nicholls State after prepping at Holden High in Livingston Parish, says this is the most fun she’s ever had playing softball.

“This team loves each other and wants to keep playing together,” said Efferson. “I played at a high school that loved softball, but I’ve never seen anything to compare to the support our fans have given us.”

That support includes a rowdy bunch of students that stand on benches lining the outfield fence. The group leapt the fence and celebrated on the field with the team after they earned a National Tournament spot with the win over Northwest Mississippi earlier this week.

Efferson’s opportunity to play in Wesson came after getting injured in her first semester at Nicholls. When her Co-Lin career ends, she plans on rejoining the team at Nicholls State in Thibodeaux.

She basically took a two-year detour in Wesson that she’s glad to have made.

“Coach Meleah had started recruiting me when I was a sophomore in high school,” said Efferson. “I just knew I wanted to come play for her and get my confidence back up after having a knee injury.”

Efferson didn’t get medically cleared until just before the season started last year after transferring in post-Christmas. She mostly played as a designated hitter in 2024.

“When we were coming back from the national tournament last year, Coach Mel told me that she was going to be counting on me as a pitcher this season,” said Efferson.

Efferson pairs with fellow sophomore Emily Richarde to give Co-Lin a formidable staff.

Richarde, from the suburbs of Memphis, is 20-0 on the season with a 1.27 ERA. She’ll play at NCAA Division II Arkansas Tech University next year. Efferson has a 1.38 ERA in 116 innings of action while also being tied for the team lead with nine home runs at the plate.

Sophomore Oliva Banes (Simpson Academy) leads the team with 63 hits this year. Banes went viral this season on social media after playing a game while wearing a microphone for social media. ESPN ended up sharing the clip of Banes talking about seeing a crush she liked in the bleachers just before crushing a home run out of the park.

Sophomore outfielder Carson Hughey says she loves the look of opposing teams when her teammates are dancing or singing along to the music blaring over the speakers at the ballpark.

“I love to look at the other team’s dugout and for them to be staring at us like we’re crazy,” said Hughey.

What Hughey knows this team is serious about is hitting the ball. At Loyd Star in her varsity softball career that began as a seventh grader, the left-handed Hughey batted from the leadoff spot.

This season for Co-Lin, she bats in the nine-hole and leads the team with a .410 batting average.

“I knew in the fall that we had a lineup that could really hit it, which made me excited to see how the year would play out,” said Hughey.

The team currently boasts a combined .370 batting average, the best in Howard’s seven seasons of leading her alma mater.

Last year, the Wolves were all about the long ball, with a combined 65 home runs on the season. This year they have hit 49 homers, but they don’t often bunt or use small ball to manufacture runs either.

“It’s just about stringing those base hits together for us,” said Hughey. “Last season it was more about hitting it out with the power in the lineup, but this year it’s more about everyone staying consistent and putting the ball where the defense isn’t.”

This team can also win a close game, as nine of their wins came by a 2-run or less margin. They carry confidence, knowing that someone in the lineup will strike when opportunity presents itself.

“I love it when we get punched in the mouth early,” said Hughey. “I think we play some of our best ball when the other team comes out hot early. It locks us in.”

Like Roberts, Hughey once sat in the bleachers, watching the 2023 National Championship team while she was a senior at Loyd Star, having signed with CLCC a few months prior.

And like Williams, when her 2025 season ends, thus will end Hughey’s softball career. Williams has been accepted into nursing school at Northwest Mississippi CC while Hughey will enroll in nursing school at the Mississippi University for Women.

If you were to count up the travel ball played while she was younger and all the high school softball games played during her six years at Loyd Star and add that to her games played at Co-Lin and you’d have a mountain of innings played by Hughey on the softball fields of her life.

And now, she has just a handful of those games left to play, and Hughey wants to make the most of them, as do her teammates.

“I’m definitely thinking about how this is my last ride, but there is no other group I’d rather be on it with,” said Hughey. “We just want to keep having fun and keep playing for each other and see how far that takes us.”