BEAUMONT, Texas – Hannah Haydel delivered a complete game four-hitter while Payton Gremillion and Alexis Huss came through with two hits and two RBIs each as the Nicholls State University softball team kept its postseason hopes alive with a 5-2 victory over Lamar Friday night at the Lamar Softball Complex.
 
With the win, Nicholls (26-20, 12-12 SLC) pulls within one game of Lamar (22-26, 12-10 SLC) in the standings and will need to sweep the Lady Cardinals to reach the postseason. The Colonels entered the series with an outside shot  of making the tournament if Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was swept in the its final series, but the Islanders put that scenario to rest with a 5-1 win over UIW on Friday. The Colonels and LU finish up the regular season with a doubleheader set to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
 
In Friday night's game, the Colonels found themselves trailing 2-1 after four innings, but in the fifth, Huss and Gremillion delivered run-scoring hits to put Nicholls up 3-2. Although the Colonels tacked on two more runs in the seventh, neither was needed as Haydel retired the final 13 batters to improve her record to 13-10 on the season.
 
Lamar spotted Nicholls a run in the first when an error allowed Danielle Phillips, who tripled with two outs, to score on a grounder to third. But the Lady Cardinals tied it up in the bottom half on a RBI single by Sable Hankins.
 
In Lamar's third, Haydel issued a leadoff walk and it came back to haunt her as Hankins tallied a two-out double to put LU up 2-1.
 
Still trailing 2-1 in the fifth, Nicholls pieced together three hits in the frame to take the lead for good. Haley Parkerson started the inning with one of her two hits in the game and she came around to score on a double by Huss, who moved to third on the play after an error. With the go-ahead run 60 feet away, Gremillion singled up the middle off of Laura Napoli (16-16) to put Nicholls in front.
 
With Haydel cruising in the circle, Parkerson started another two-run inning for the Colonels in the seventh with a leadoff single to left. After stealing second and moving to third on a sacrifice bunt, Parkerson crossed the plate on a Huss single. The next batter, Gremillion, doubled to left center to make the score 5-2.
 
In the bottom of the seventh, Haydel forced two flyouts to left and a groundout to end the game. She finished the game with five strikeouts and walked one.
 
Napoli took the loss for Lamar, allowing three earned runs on eight hits in seven innings of work. Hankins led LU at the plate with two hits and two RBIs.