THIBODAUX, La. – Junior
Alexis Huss capped a four-run seventh inning rally with a two-run walk-off home run as the Nicholls State University softball team split its Saturday doubleheader with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the Colonel Softball Complex. Nicholls won the first game, 12-11, but fell in the second, 8-6.
Paired with Friday night's loss to the Islanders (6-19-1, 2-7 SLC), the Colonels (17-11, 5-4 SLC) suffered their first Southland Conference series defeat of the season. Nicholls will return to action next weekend at Central Arkansas for a three-game set.
Game 1 – Nicholls 12, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 11 Heading into the bottom of the seventh trailing 11-8, the Colonels needed only four batters to score four runs as Nicholls claimed a come-from-behind 12-11 victory over the Islanders.
The Colonels, who had 17 hits in the game, received four of them in the final inning. The rally started on a
Haley Parkerson bunt single, and she would come around to score on
Payton Gremillion's double to left center.
Brooke Morris then singled home Gremillion to bring Nicholls within one.
Islander starting pitcher Liz Carter (4-12) re-entered the game to face Huss, who sent the second pitch that she saw over the right center wall for a dramatic walk-off victory.
Huss led Nicholls at the plate, finishing 4-for-5 with four RBIs, a homer and two doubles. The long shot was Huss' third walk-off hit of the season, with all three coming at home. Gremillion added three hits, while Morris,
Kristen Ahearn and
Haley Stevenson tacked on two each.
Hannah Haydel (10-5) earned the win, pitching four innings of relief with two strikeouts.
Taylor Hastings started the game, allowing six runs in three innings of work.
The Islanders led 2-0 after two innings before the teams exploded for a combined 14 runs in the next two frames. AMCC scored three in the third and four in the fourth, while Nicholls scored four in its third and three in the fourth.
Corpus Christi pushed its lead to 11-7 with two more runs in the sixth, but Nicholls got one back in the bottom as
Jessica Taylor singled in a run, setting up the Colonels' dramatic seventh-inning rally.
Game 2 –Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 8, Nicholls 6 In game two of Saturday's doubleheader, the teams traded runs throughout before two walks in the seventh led to a pair of runs for the Islanders as Nicholls came up short in an 8-6 setback.
The Islanders out-hit Nicholls 13-12, with none more important than Brittany Morse's two-run single in the top of the seventh. The Colonels put on a runner in the bottom half after Ahearn singled, but Carter struck out Stevenson on three pitches to give the Islanders the series.
Ahearn paced the Colonels with three hits, while Gremillion, Morris and
Danielle Phillips had two each.
With only two pitchers available for the weekend, the Colonels once again had to use just Hastings (3-1) and Haydel. Hastings tossed 6.1 innings, allowing five earned runs on 10 hits. Haydel pitched 0.2 innings, allowing one run on three hits.
Things looked promising for Nicholls early on as
Kayla Prater and Phillips tallied RBI singles in the first inning. But the Islanders tied it up in the second after two errors led to two runs, and would then take a 4-2 lead in the third, scoring on a Jessica Mendez single and a wild pitch.
Nicholls answered with a run each in their next two innings, but so did the Islanders to keep a 6-4 advantage heading in to the bottom of the fifth. The Colonels then tied the game after a pair of errors allowed two runs to cross the plate.
In the seventh, the Colonels struggled in the circle as a pair of wild pitches helped move the two batters who walked into scoring position. With two out, Morse came through with the game-winning hit.
