THIBODAUX  – The Nicholls State University softball team will close out its 2012 campaign with a two-game series at the Colonel Softball Complex against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, starting with the opener on Friday at 6 p.m.

On Saturday, the Colonels will honor seniors Brittany Ezell, Megan Gaspard and Ashley Ray before the season finale. The Senior Day presentation will begin at approximately 11:40 a.m., with first pitched slated for noon.

Nicholls (13-30, 7-11) will look to wrap up the season on a high note after dropping four of six games in its final road trip. With a sweep against Corpus Christi (16-20, 10-8), the Colonels can match their win total from last season despite playing seven less games, and with one victory, will pass last year's conference mark.

At the plate, senior Megan Gaspard led the Colonels in their road swing, batting .400 with eight hits and three RBIs. Gaspard, a four-year starter, has saw her average climb nearly 30 points over the last month as she's now batting .294, which ranks third on the team.

As a squad, Nicholls is batting .269, ranking fourth in the Southland. Ashley Bertot leads the Colonels at .385, trailing only Sam Houston's Kim Damian by three points for the Southland Conference batting crown. Also leading the way is senior Ashley Ray, who's batting .364 with seven home runs and 29 RBIs. With the help of 24 walks, Ray heads into the final weekend with the SLC's best on-base percentage at .465.

Both Colonel pitchers, Ashton Bennett and Katie Moulder, picked up wins last week in conference play. Bennett has a 7-10 record while Moulder sits at 6-15. Both hurlers post a 3.38 ERA on the year.

The Islanders put together a six-game winning streak before last week, but have since lost four straight conference games to knock them into a fifth-place tie in the standings. Corpus Christ has already clinched a spot in the Southland Tournament, but is currently slotted to play first-place Texas State.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has struggled to score runs this season, coming in with a league-low  82, which is 51 fewer than the Colonels, who rank eighth. Laura Phillips heads the team with a .385 average, compiling 15 hits and eight RBIs. Cassie Carroll is the lone Islander with double digit RBIs (14).

Leading the Islander pitching staff is Greta Cecchetti with a 10-5 record. Cecchetti has struck out 103 batters in 92-plus innings and owns a 1.66 ERA, which ranks third in the SLC.

Last season, the Islanders took two of three in Thibodaux en route to their regular season title. However, the Colonels lead the all-time series, 11-4.

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