GULFPORT, Miss. – After defeating Mississippi Valley State 8-1 in the first game, the Nicholls State University softball team looked to make it a perfect 4-0 for the weekend in its night cap against Southern Miss on Saturday, but the Colonels would come up short in an 11-inning pitchers' duel, falling 3-2 to the Golden Eagles at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic.
Nicholls (9-6) closed out the classic with a 3-1 mark, notching two wins over MVSU and one over Jackson State. The Colonels will look to stay hot as they host two doubleheaders this week, taking on Detroit on Monday at 4 p.m. before a 5 p.m. matchup against Holy Cross on Tuesday.
Game 1 – Nicholls 8, Mississippi Valley State 1 For the second straight game, Nicholls completely overmatched Mississippi Valley State as
Hannah Haydel put together six strong innings of work in the circle and
Laura Neil drove in three runs to lead the Colonels to an 8-1 victory.
Mississippi Valley took a 1-0 lead after the second by scoring on an error, but Nicholls responded with a four-run third. The Colonels had four hits in the frame and also took advantage of two errors by MVSU.
Kayla Prater tied the game on a RBI groundout,
Alexis Huss gave Nicholls the lead with a RBI single through the right side and Neil capped the inning with a 2-run single up the middle.
Leading 4-1 in the fifth, the Colonels added another run on an error before
Payton Gremillion singled home a run. MVSU struggled in the field all game as they were charged with six errors.
In the sixth, Nicholls tacked on two insurance runs without getting a hit. An error and two walks loaded the bases, leading to a RBI by
Jessica Taylor on a hit-by-pitch. Neil also drew a free pass with the bases loaded to make the score 8-1.
The eight runs were more than enough for the pitching staff, which combined to allow just three hits. Haydel (4-2) struck out eight batters in six innings of work and
Taylor Hastings pitched the seventh, surrendering a hit.
Gremillion and
Brooke Morris led the offense with two hits each.
Game 2 – Southern Miss 2, Nicholls 2 (11 innings) Colonel sophomore
Jackie Johnson battled it out with Southern Miss hurler Jillian Johnson as the two combined to pitch 22 innings, but it was Southern Miss that came out on top at the end with a 3-2 victory in 11 innings to close out the Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic.
Neither pitcher allowed a run through five innings before the Colonels cracked the scoring column with a run in the bottom of the sixth. A single by Gremillion led off the frame and an error by the Golden Eagles put two on with no outs. Following a sacrifice bunt,
Danielle Phillips drove in the game's first run on a sacrifice fly to put Nicholls up 1-0.
Needing only three outs to complete a 4-0 weekend, the Colonels buckled under pressure with two costly errors in the seventh. A leadoff error by Morris set up a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to second, and
Jackie Johnson then threw the ball away on the next play to allow the runner to score to tie the game.
In the extra frames, neither team scored in the eighth or ninth. Southern Miss broke the tie in the 10th with a RBI single; however, the Colonels came right back as Taylor scored on a wild pitch.
But Nicholls returned the favor in the 11th by letting a run come home on a wild pitch. It turned out to be the winning run as the Colonels came up empty in the bottom half, ending the game at 3-2.
Jackie Johnson fanned 12 batters in 11 innings of work, allowing no earned runs on five hits. Her counterpart, Jillian Johnson, struck out nine Colonels and surrendered no earned runs as well on three hits. Gremillion had two of the hits while Huss recorded the other.
