HAMMOND, La. – Freshman Amanda Gianelloni hit a home run in the first inning, an Alexis Huss double in the second led to another run and senior Hannah Haydel and the defense took care of the rest as the Nicholls State University softball team won its ninth consecutive game with a 2-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Friday night at North Oak Park.
 
With the win, Nicholls improved to 34-14 on the season and 17-4 in league play. McNeese dropped its opening game at Lamar on Friday night, which pulled Nicholls to 0.5 games back. McNeese and LU are scheduled to play Game 2 later tonight.
 
Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana (22-28, 5-17 SLC) will wrap up the series on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled for noon.
 
Haydel put together another solid night, tossing a complete-game four-hitter and allowed just one unearned run to cross the plate. But two of her five walks came late and kept Southeastern Louisiana in the game before the Colonel defense came up with big plays to seal the win.
 
Gianelloni got things started for the offense right out of the gate as she belted her team-high seventh home run of the season. The homer over the left field wall quickly extended her on-base streak to 16 games and her hitting streak to 11. She finished the night 2-for-3 at the plate, accounting for half of the Colonels' hits.
 
In the second, Huss led off with a double over the centerfielder's head. She then came home to score as the Lady Lion shortstop misfired to first on a grounder to give Nicholls a 2-0 lead.
 
Haydel (19-7) allowed two hits through the first four innings, but neither left the infield. The senior picked up a big strikeout in the first frame to leave two runners on, and in the fourth, forced a liner to first to keep two more SLU runners at bay. The Lady Lions stranded nine runners for the game, while Nicholls had four hits and left four on.
 
A walk and an error in the fifth put Southeastern on the board. Haley Stevenson mishandled a grounder at third and the next batter, Kinsey Nichols, grounded out to short for an RBI.
 
But Stevenson more than made up for the error in the final inning. Haydel issued another leadoff walk and Katie Lacour bunted for a single to put the winning run on base with no outs. Playing in, Stevenson fielded a grounder and tossed it to Gianelloni at third for a force out. She then fielded a tough sacrifice bunt and gunned down the speedy Nichols at first, putting runners on second and third with two outs. Haydel then forced Amber Sather to hit a grounder to Stevenson, who fired the ball across the diamond for the final out.
 
Gretchen Morgan had the Colonels' fourth hit, tallying a pinch-hit single in the sixth.
 
Taylor Bishop (12-15) took the loss for SLU, allowing one earned run on four hits and struck out two. Lacour led the Lady Lions with a pair of hits.