MAGIC CITY TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

THIBODAUX, La.  – After going 3-1 last weekend, the Nicholls State University softball team will look to carry that momentum to Birmingham as the Colonels will play five games in the Magic City Classic, co-hosted by Samford and Alabama-Birmingham.

Nicholls (7-7) kicks off play in the classic on Friday against Alabama-Birmingham (6-2) at 2:30 p.m. before taking on Samford (6-7) at 5 p.m. On Saturday, the Colonels will have one game, playing Murray State (4-5) at 10 a.m. Nicholls wraps up the weekend on Sunday versus Murray State (10 a.m.) and Alabama-Birmingham (2:30 p.m.). All five games will be played at the UAB Softball Field and live stats will be available on geauxcolonels.com.

After 14 games, the Colonels are batting .234 as a team and have scored 48 runs. Last weekend in Southaven, Miss., Nicholls had four extra base hits, including senior Leah Andrus' walkoff triple against Southeast Missouri State. Andrus and fellow senior Ashton Bennett tallied five hits in the four games, while Brittany Marcet had a team-high six.

Three Colonels are batting over .300 so far, led by Andrus at .333. Marcet is next at .316 and has a team-high nine RBIs, while Ashley Bertot, last year's Southland batting champ, is hitting .306. Paige Miller is also hitting over .300 in limited at-bats and is one of four Colonels with a home run.

Senior Ashton Bennett continues to be the ace of the pitching staff, tacking on two more wins last week. The Baton Rouge native is 5-2 on the year and ranks second in the Southland in ERA (1.11), opposing batting average (.182) and wins. Freshman Hannah Haydel posts a 2-3 record with a 4.41 ERA while junior Katie Moulder is 0-2 with a 3.28 ERA.

Following this weekend's action, Nicholls will head to South Alabama for a rematch with the Jaguars on March 6.