RIDGELAND – Four Northeast Mississippi teams – East Webster, Nettleton, North Pontotoc and West Union – play today at Freedom Ridge Park for state championships in fastpitch softball.

Nettleton and North Pontotoc are defending state champions in their respective classifications – Nettleton 3A and North Pontotoc 4A.

All of today’s second games in the best-of-three series are scheduled for an 11 a.m. first pitch. All third games, if necessary, would follow.

Class 4A

- North Pontotoc (28-6) is looking to rebound from Thursday’s 13-3 loss to the state’s top-ranked team, Newton County (33-2).

Lady Vikings coach Shane Montgomery will look to pitcher Brianna Gable to cool the Cougars’ hot sticks. Newton County collected 18 hits in the opener.

Class 3A

- Nettleton (23-1) can send coach Chris Kidd out of coaching with a state championship today against St. Patrick (23-5). He is giving up his coaching duties after the season.

Hayley Parker belted two homers in Friday’s 8-2 win by the Lady Tigers, who lead the series, 1-0.

Class 2A

- West Union (18-9) committed five errors in Friday’s 8-5 loss to Bogue Chitto (21-7).

The Lady Eagles, led by pitcher Danielle Taylor, need to win two games today to bring home the championship trophy to Union County.

Class 1A

- East Webster (20-7) came within a couple of key plays of winning Thursday’s opener against Enterprise (28-5).

Swayze Hollenhead, a Mississippi State signee, will be in the circle for the Wolverines while hard-throwing Hayleigh Harper will pitch for Enterprise, who won 3-2 in the first game.

She recorded 10 strikeouts in the opener, but gave up seven hits, including four doubles.