April 2, 2008

Box Score

THIBODAUX, La. - Nicholls fought through the first game to win 2-1 in extra innings, and took advantage of a key South Alabama mistake in the second game to emerge 5-4 on Wednesday afternoon in the Colonel Softball Complex.

"I was pleased with how we hit today and how we played defensively," said head coach Jenny Parsons. "They [USA] have a really good team and it is good that we had success against them heading into our series at Northwestern State this weekend."

The Colonels (19-20) fell behind early in the first game after the Jaguars took a 1-0 lead after a throwing error by sophomore pitcher Lacey Gros. Gros over threw senior Amy Thibodeaux at first base that allowed USA's Evelyn Pare round third and cross home plate safely to go up 1-0 after one inning of play.

Despite the error, Gros settled down in the circle and threw all eight innings allowing only one run on three hits, while also striking out seven to improve to 5-3 on the season.

The score remained 1-0 in favor of USA until the bottom of the fifth when true freshman Tori Lay hit a RBI single through the left side to score sophomore Karla Troxler. Troxler was pinch running for sophomore Nicole Smith who led off the inning with a walk. The Colonels could have done some more damage in the fifth inning but USA's Ashley Elmore made an outstanding catch on a fly ball hit deep by junior Danielle Clayton to leave the bases loaded to end the fifth.

Both teams failed to score through seven innings, and in an effort to get the second game started on time, both teams opted to use the international tie breaker rule that allows each team to start the last batted out of the previous inning at second base. South Alabama failed to score in the top half of the eighth, but the Colonels took advantage of their opportunity in the bottom stanza.

Nicholls placed sophomore speedster Gabby Lemaire on second base, and senior Kat Harrell successful moved her to third on a bunt single. Junior Kodi Butler then hit a sacrifice fly to deep right center to send Lemaire safely home for the 2-1 win.

Dubbed with the loss was USA's Beth Pilgrim as she allowed five hits and two runs through 7.1 innings of work. Pilgrim fanned two while only walking one in falling to 9-8 on the season.

Leading the Colonels at the plate was Harrell as she had three of Nicholls' five hits to finish 3-for-4. Also recording hits were Butler and Lay as they each finished 1-for-3 with a RBI.

The second game remained scoreless until the top of the fourth when the Jaguars tacked on one courtesy of a two-out RBI double down the right field line by Julie Morton to take the 1-0 lead. The bleeding stopped there for Nicholls luckily, and they escaped only down by a run.

However, USA built on their success in the fifth as they added three runs on three hits to take a 4-0 lead. Wood was relieved by senior Jessica Barksdale, who pitched for the first time since being blindsided by a hit ball against Louisiana-Monroe last week, and successfully got them out of the inning.

In the bottom half of the fifth, Nicholls' bats woke up as they scored five runs on four hits to take the 5-4 lead. Providing the spark in the inning was senior Rachel Pugh who hit a roping triple to center field that scored Gros all the way from first base. Harrell then followed up with a RBI single up the middle to score Pugh to make it a 4-2 game.

With two outs in the inning, USA's second baseman Courtney Chigaros committed a costly throwing error on a routine ground ball hit by Butler that scored Harrell to extend the inning. The Colonels took advantage of the miscue as they went on to score two more runs to take the lead. After the error, Clayton hit a RBI single up the middle to score Butler, and then Wood hit a RBI single through the left side to score Clayton to give Nicholls the 5-4 lead.

The lead was good enough to hold for the Colonels as they picked up the win. Getting credit for the win was Barksdale in relief as she tossed 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to improve to 3-5 on the season.

Leading Nicholls in the batter's box was Pugh as she finished 2-for-2 with her second triple in two games and a RBI to go along with it. Also recording hits were Harrell, Wood, Butler, Clayton, Gros and Smith in the win. After today's two contest, Harrell now stands with 222 career hits which ranks her tenth on the SLC all-time hit charts.

The Colonels will be back in action this weekend at Northwestern State (7-29, 3-14) for a three game series starting at Noon on Saturday with a doubleheader.

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