May 10, 2008

Final Stats

SAN MARCOS, Texas - Nicholls fought hard throughout the SLC Tournament to make it to the conference championship game, but Stephen F. Austin's Ashley Struchtemeyer hit a bottom of the seventh walk-off homerun to take the 2008 SLC Championship by the score of 2-1.

The Lady Jacks (36-23, 18-11 SLC) wrapped up the conference's NCAA Tournament automatic bid with the win. They will find out what regional they play in tomorrow at 9 p.m. on ESPN U.

"I can't tell you enough how proud I am to be a coach and a part of this team. I think that we definitely proved that we belonged here this weekend," said head coach Jenny Parsons.

"We are saying goodbye to some great players who will be graduating, and we definitely would not have gotten to where we were without them. It is safe to say that we are going to miss them all."

Landing on the 2008 All-Tournament Team from Nicholls were seniors Krystalin Ensminger, Kat Harrell and Amy Thibodeaux while junior Danielle Clayton and sophomore Audrey Wood were voted to the squad as well.

The Colonels finished the season 31-28 overall and 15-14 in conference, and take SLC Runner-Up honors for the first time since 2003. Although the season came to an end with one swing of the bat, Nicholls accomplished some amazing things in the 2008 SLC Tournament.

Nicholls entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed, and sure it was expected of them to defeat No. 7 seed Sam Houston State in the first round, but the following two against No. 3 Texas-San Antonio and No. 2 Texas-Arlington were not. They proved to everyone they belonged here.

And to beat those higher seeds in the tournament, the Colonels needed superlative play by the entire team and got it. The 10 inning pitching performance by Ensminger in Nicholls' win over UTSA, the two homerun performance by Thibodeaux in the same game and Harrell's outstanding play at the plate and in the field throughout the tournament are just a few of the many outstanding gems that the Colonels used to get to the championship.

"From top to bottom, we played true team ball this weekend. Our entire team was dedicated in every aspect of the game to win. I just can't say it enough in how proud I am of this team," said Parsons.

The Colonels got on the scoreboard in the top of the second when SFA's Monika Covington gave up a bases loaded walk to give Nicholls the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, that is all Nicholls got in the inning and left three base runners stranded. For the game, Nicholls left six on-base to the Stephen F. Austin's four.

The Lady Jacks added one in the bottom of the sixth when Harrell committed a critical fielding error that allowed Kendall Harper to score from third to tie the game at one apiece.

In the ensuing inning, Stuchtemeyer hit a one-out bomb over the right center field wall to lift the Lady Jacks to the 2-1 victory.

Dubbed with the loss was Ensminger who pitched 1.1 innings allowing two hits and two runs (one earned) as she fell to 10-13 on the season. Picking up the win and Tournament MVP honors was Covington for SFA who threw the complete game to improve to 20-12 on the season. Covington yielded one run on six hits while fanning nine.

Leading the Colonels at the plate was senior Rachel Pugh and sophomore Nicole Smith with a 2-for-3 showing while Clayton and Thibodeaux each finished 1-for-3 with Thibodeaux scoring a run.

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