LIVE STATS

THIBODAUX, La. – With a 5-0 record at Swanner Field this year, the Nicholls State University softball team looks to remain unbeaten at home as the Colonels go for the season sweep of Southern Miss Wednesday evening at 5 p.m.

Nicholls (20-9) and Southern Miss (14-20) squared off earlier this year in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with the Colonels exploding for nine runs in the sixth for a run-rule 11-2 victory. Amanda Gianelloni highlighted the frame with a grand slam before Kasey Frederick homered to put the run-rule into play.

Both Gianelloni and Frederick hit home runs for the Colonels last weekend, but it was not enough to avoid the first conference series loss for Nicholls. Plagued by eight errors, the Red and Gray dropped the games 1 and 2 at Southeastern Louisiana to knock the Colonels out of first place.

Nicholls heads into the matchup with a .297 batting average, led by Gianelloni's .360 clip. She also has a team-high 24 RBIs and five home runs. Frederick is hitting .345 and leads the squad with nine doubles, and freshman Kelsey Miller is at .344 and has a nine-game hitting streak.

In the circle, Megan Landry suffered two losses at SLU despite allowing only two earned runs in her two starts. She owns a 12-5 record with a 1.81 ERA in 92.2 innings pitched. In the win over Southern Miss, Landry tossed 5.0 innings and had two strikeouts. Freshman Alexis LaBure, who has four saves on the year, also pitched against Southern Miss, holding them hitless in an inning of work.

Southern Miss is coming off a conference sweep of UTEP last weekend. The Golden Eagles face No. 10 LSU tonight (Tuesday) to begin a five-game road trip against Louisiana schools. They'll head north to play Louisiana Tech this weekend.

Destini Brown paces USM with a .384 batting average and 33 hits. Ciarra Cherry, who scored one of USM's two runs in the earlier matchup against Nicholls, was named Conference USA Player of the Week after going 5-for-6 against UTEP with three runs, three RBIs, two doubles and a home run. She was a triple away from the cycle in the finale against the Miners.

Kim Crowson and Samantha Robles front the pitching staff with six wins each. Crowson has a team-best 3.18 ERA and Robles' 63 strikeouts account for over half of the staff's total.

UP NEXT

The Colonels host Central Arkansas for a three-game series this weekend, starting Friday with a doubleheader at 4 p.m.