Box vs. Troy
Box vs. Southern Miss

HATTIESBURG, Miss – The Nicholls State University softball team opened up play at the Southern Miss Invitational on Saturday and came up short in both outings, falling 9-7 to Troy before losing to host Southern Miss, 9-1, at the USM Softball Complex.

Heading into their final at-bat trailing by five against Troy (8-3), Nicholls (5-8) plated three runs to cut the deficit to 9-7; however, the Colonels would leave the bases loaded as Troy held on for the win.

Freshman Brittany Marcet led the offense with three hits while driving in two. The Pearland, Texas native hit her second home run of the season, a solo shot in the fourth. As a team, Nicholls finished the game with 11 hits.

Senior Carlee Winklemann was tagged with the loss, surrendering four earned runs in 2.1 innings of work. Freshman Katie Moulder threw 4.2 innings in relief, giving up a pair of runs while striking out two.

Troy was cruising to an easy victory, taking a 9-1 lead after just three and a half innings before the Colonel offense got started. Following Marcet's homer in the fourth, Nicholls received an RBI single from Tsade Joubert in the fifth, and in the sixth, Lauren Batiz made the score 9-4 with a base hit.

In Nicholls' final at-bat, Megan Gaspard led off the inning with a single, and then scored on an error. Tori Lay and Ashton Bennett added RBI singles to bring the score to 9-7. With two outs and the bases loaded, Troy would force a groundout to escape with the win.

For the final game, Southern Miss (7-5) used a seven-run third to take a commanding nine run lead before winning 9-1 by mercy rule in five innings.

Nicholls finished with seven hits in the loss, led by junior Ashley Ray with two hits and freshman Lauren Jolivette, who was 2-for-2 with an RBI. Marcet added a single in the first to extend her hitting streak to five games.

Sophomore Aston Bennett took the loss, giving up four earned in three innings. Moulder worked out of the bullpen for the second time on Saturday, giving up one hit in an inning of work.

The Colonels threatened to score early in the game but were unable to get on the board. Nicholls put two runners on in the first before the Lady Eagles got a double play to get out of the frame, and in the third, three singles loaded the bases with only one out, but USM would get a strikeout and a grounder to end the inning.

After the Lady Eagles put up a seven-spot in the third, Jolivette drove in Gaspard in the fourth for the only Colonel run as USM took the game in five innings, 9-1.

Nicholls will wrap up the weekend on Sunday with two games, starting at 10 a.m. against the University of Evansville before playing Mississippi Valley State at 3 p.m.