OXFORD, Miss. – After opening Saturday with an 8-1 win over Mississippi Valley State in the Red and Blue Classic, the Nicholls State University softball team could not hold on to a 5-1 lead over No. 23 Ole Miss as the Rebels rallied for a 6-5 victory.
Nicholls (13-9) will wrap up play in the classic Sunday against Austin Peay at 10 a.m.
Game 1 – Nicholls 8, MVSU 1
Playing the Devilettes for third time this season, the Colonels took a few innings to get the offense going before cranking out nine hits in an 8-1 victory.
Amanda Gianelloni led the Colonels by driving two runs twice on a triple and a double.
Samantha Mracich and
Jessica Taylor also had two hits, with Mracich leading off the first inning with an inside-the-park home run.
Jackie Johnson (5-4) picked up the win, tossing 5.0 innings with three hits and one earned run. The senior fanned six and walked three. Mracich also pitched, throwing two shutout innings.
Game 2 – No. 23 Ole Miss 6, Nicholls 5
The Colonels pounded out 10 hits against nationally ranked Ole Miss, highlighted by a monster outing from
Kasey Frederick, but the Rebels scored five unanswered runs in the final three innings to earn a walk-off victory to extend their winning streak to 13 games.
Frederick was 3-for-4 at the plate and had a solo home run, a double and drove in three. Two of the RBIs came in the third on her double to right center.
Sydney Bourg put the Colonels up 3-0 on an infield single.
Ole Miss got on back in the bottom half, but
Brooke Morris sprayed a double down the left field line to give Nicholls a 4-1 advantage. In the fifth, Frederick powered a solo shot down the left field line and over the wall for a four-run lead.
Megan Landry allowed 12 hits to the Rebels in 5.1 innings, but did not run into trouble until late. Ole Miss cut the deficit to two in the bottom of the fifth when Miranda Strother, sister of Colonel catcher
Moriah Strother, lifted a triple over the glove of an outstretched Bourg in center field.
In the sixth, Ole Miss used a pair of run-scoring singles to even the game at 5-5.
Against Colonel reliever
Jackie Johnson in the seventh, Strother reached base and stole second to move into scoring position. The game looked to be over when Kaylee Horton singled to center, but Bourg threw a strike to the plate to
Moriah Strother, and she was able to hold on for the out as Miranda plowed into her at home.
But following a walk to load the bases, Elantra Cox stroked a single up the gut for the walk-off victory. Cox fueled the Ole Miss offense with a 4-for-5 day.
Mracich, Morris and Bourg each finished with two hits for the Red and Gray.
