THIBODAUX – With its last victory coming against the University of Louisiana at Monroe, the Nicholls State University softball team will try to take down another in-state rival, No. 18 Louisiana-Lafayette, in a non-conference doubleheader on Tuesday night at Lamson Park. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.

Nicholls (9-28) is coming off a sweep against Texas State and will be fighting to claim its first victory of the month. Following the Colonels' dramatic 7-5 extra-innings victory over ULM on March 31, Nicholls has gone winless in its last eight contests.

While the Colonels rank near the bottom of the conference in batting average at .249, juniors Ashley Ray, who transferred from ULL before the season, and Megan Gaspard continue to have stellar seasons at the plate as both players are hitting at a .320 clip. The duo accounted for 11 of Nicholls' 23 hits over the weekend with Ray adding on to her team-high 28 RBIs while Gaspard extended her hitting streak to 11 games.

In the circle, although suffering a loss on Saturday, Ashton Bennett dropped her ERA to 2.75 over the weekend by giving up only two earned runs in 10.1 innings. The sophomore from Baton Rouge leads Nicholls with five wins and has tossed 102 innings.

Nicholls will have a daunting task in knocking off ULL (36-6) as the Ragin' Cajuns have won eight straight games and are 20-1 at Lamson Park this season.

ULL comes in with a .347 team average, led by two players hitting over .400 in Christi Orgeron (.433) and Gabriele Bridges (.417). The tandem has 35 home runs with Orgeron driving in 71 runs for the season.

The Ragin' Cajun hurlers have been as impressive, compiling a team 1.62 ERA with 28 complete games. Ashley Brignac has carried most of the workload, posting a 22-3 record and a 1.19 ERA in 146.2 innings pitched. She has racked up 167 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .192 batting average.

The doubleheader between Nicholls and ULL will start at 5:00 p.m. Live stats for both contests will be available.