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THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University softball team will head north to take on undefeated Central Arkansas for a three-game Southland Conference series at Farris Field, starting Saturday with a doubleheader at 1 p.m.
The series between Nicholls (17-11, 5-4 SLC) and UCA (21-8, 9-0 SLC) will conclude on Sunday with a single game at 12 p.m. Live stats and video will be available for all three contests, with links accessible via geauxcolonels.com.
Nicholls did not have a midweek game scheduled this week after dropping its first conference series last weekend at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders blanked the Red and Gray in the first game before the teams combined for 37 runs and 54 hits in the next two contests, with each team earning a win.
The Colonels bring the Southland's top batting average at .315, but the Sugar Bears counter with one of the best pitching staffs in the league. UCA is one of two teams in the Southland with a sub-3.00 ERA as the staff ranks second at 2.93. They also rank second in the SLC with a .233 opponent batting average.
Nicholls ranks at the top of the hitting category in the Southland due to having four hitters who are batting .350 or better.
Haley Stevenson has paced the squad all season, ranking fourth in the SLC with a .410 batting average.
Alexis Huss is second on the team with a .382 average and 23 RBIs, while
Brooke Morris is hitting at a .355 clip. Freshman leadoff hitter
Payton Gremillion joined the trio after hitting .636 against the Islanders to up her average to .367 on the year.
The Colonel pitching staff struggled a little bit last week, but an injury to
Jackie Johnson gave the team only two available pitchers.
Hannah Haydel notched her 10th win of the season on Saturday and leads the team with a 10-5 record, 59 strikeouts and a 2.18 ERA.
Taylor Hastings suffered her first loss, dropping to 3-1 and has a 4.62 ERA.
UCA's pitching staff is mainly a one-person show as Kylee Studioso has accounted for 127 of the Sugar Bears' 181.1 innings pitched. Studioso has been one of the best pitchers in the league so far, compiling a 17-4 record with a 2.54 ERA. She leads the league by a wide margin in strikeouts with 157 and averages 8.6 per game.
On offense, UCA is batting a shade under .300 at .297, led by Sarah Bigej and Sam Forrest. Bigej leads the Sugar Bears at .384 and Forrest is at .380 with a team-high 26 RBIs.
