DENTON, Texas – The Nicholls State University softball team totaled 16 hits in Friday's opening game of the Mean Green Spring Fling to defeat Tennessee-Martin, 10-3, and went on to earn a sweep with a 3-0 win over Houston Baptist, fueled by a two-hit shutout by freshman Megan Landry.
 
Nicholls improved to 12-7 with the wins and will continue play in Texas with two more games on Saturday against HBU (10 a.m.) and North Texas (2:30 p.m.).
 
Game 1 – Nicholls 10, UT Martin 3
 
The Colonels tallied their second most hits for the season with 16 as they avenged an earlier loss to UT-Martin with a 10-3 victory on Friday morning.
 
Nicholls jumped out to a 3-1 lead after four innings, but the Skyhawks knotted the score in the bottom of the fourth with a pair of runs. The Colonels quickly answered by scoring two in the top of the fifth, and exploded for five runs on six hits in the seventh to put to rest any chance of a comeback.
 
Danielle Phillips and Brooke Morris led the offense with three hits each, while Amanda Gianelloni had two hits, four RBIs and belted a two-run homer in third to give Nicholls an early 2-0 lead. A total of seven Colonels had multi-hit games as Kasey Frederick, Gretchen Morgan, Haley Parkerson and Haley Stevenson added two hits each.
 
Gianelloni's two-out homer gave Colonel starter Taylor Hastings a two-run cushion, but UT-Martin (10-5) got one back on a solo shot by Carly Gonzalez in the bottom half of the third. In the top of the fourth, Phillips hit a double down the left field line to score Stevenson, who singled earlier in the frame.
 
After pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, Hastings left the game in the fifth with a runner on base. Landry took over in the circle and gave up a two-run homer run to Katie Warrick that tied the game at 3. Hastings took a no-decision, allowing two runs on four hits in 4.1 innings. She finished with three strikeouts and walked three.
 
The tie was short-lived as Nicholls pieced together two hits in the sixth to take a 5-3 lead. Morris brought in the first run on a single to left, and Gianelloni added another on a sacrifice fly.
 
In the seventh, the Colonels started the frame with four consecutive hits, scoring on an infield single by Stevenson. Kayla Prater brought in a run on a fielder's choice, Phillips tacked on a RBI single and another run came across on a wild pitch. Gianelloni capped the scoring once again, this time with a RBI fielder's choice.
 
Leading 10-3 in the final inning, Landry allowed just a walk in the seventh as Nicholls picked up the victory. Landry (6-3) gave up just the one home run in 2.2 innings of relief.
 
Game 2 – Nicholls 3, Houston Baptist 0
 
The Colonels struck early with two runs in the first against Houston Baptist and it proved to be more than enough for freshman Megan Landry as the Pierre Part native tossed her third career shutout in Nicholls' 3-0 win over conference foe HBU.
 
Landry allowed just two hits in seven innings as she gave up zero runs for the seventh time out of 14 appearances. She walked one batter and struck out four.
 
Nicholls finished with eight hits, getting two each from Danielle Phillips, Alexis Huss and Haley Parkerson. Phillips led off the bottom of the first with a single, stole second, and scored on a RBI single by Kasey Frederick. Amanda Gianelloni also scored on the play on an error by the Huskies' left fielder.
 
The next two innings saw 12 batters retired in order. Landry pushed it to 14 and had her no-hitter still intact before HBU (8-4) recorded a single with two outs in the fourth.
 
After the first inning, HBU's Laci Belvosky (5-2) kept the Colonels in check until Nicholls used three hits in the sixth to add an insurance run. Huss started the inning with a base hit, and Parkerson singled up the middle to bring home pinch runner Madison Jeffrey.
 
Landry (7-3) tossed a perfect seventh en route to her seventh win of the year.