Final Stats Game One
Final Stats Game Two

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Nicholls State University softball team opened play in The Gold Pub and Grill Classic on Saturday and came away 1-1, defeating Louisiana Tech, 5-2, before falling in extra innings, 5-4, to host Southern Miss.

Nicholls (3-9) will wrap up the tournament with two games on Sunday, taking on IUPUI and Mississippi Valley State. A live audio broadcast, courtesy of ThibodauxOnline.com, will be available for both games.

In the opener against Louisiana Tech (4-7), Nicholls rallied from a 2-0 deficit, scoring five runs in the fifth en route to the three-run victory. The Lady Techsters threatened in the final inning, but Katie Moulder ended the game with a bases loaded strikeout to put the cap on her complete game for the Colonels.

Moulder (2-3) surrendered six hits in seven innings of work, giving up two earned while striking out two. The Lady Techsters used a double in the third and a triple in the fifth to score their two runs against Moulder, giving them a 2-0 lead after four and half innings.

The Colonels cut the lead in half in the fifth after senior Ashley Ray brought home Ashley Bertot on a double up the middle. With runners on second and third, Rachel Moore delivered a two-run single, putting the Colonels up 3-2. Nicholls would add two insurance runs on a double from Kat Angeles and a sacrifice bunt by Lauren Batiz Divant.

In the seventh, La. Tech loaded the bases after a two-out walk, but Moulder fanned Kendra Harmon to secure the victory.

As a team, the Colonels finished with eight hits, led by Ray and Angeles with two each.

In the nightcap against Southern Miss, Angeles belted a three-run homer in the fifth to break a one-all tie, but two errors  in the bottom of the seventh led to three Golden Eagle runs, sending the game into extras before another defensive mistake in the eighth gave USM a walk-off 5-4 victory.

Trailing 4-1 in its final at-bat, USM (4-4) pounded out five hits after a leadoff error by the Colonels to tie the game. Junior Ashton Bennett (1-4), who suffered the loss, was charged with two earned after Nicholls had two errors in the frame.

After Nicholls came up empty in the eighth, the Golden Eagles brought home the winning run on the fourth Colonel error of the game.

Ray and Megan Gaspard led Nicholls with two hits apiece as the Colonels finished with eight hits in the game.