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LAKE CHARLES, La. – The top-seed Nicholls State University softball team suffered a 3-2 setback to No. 3 McNeese on a walk-off single in the eighth inning Thursday afternoon at Joe Miller Field.
With the loss, Nicholls (39-14) slides down to the lower bracket and will play the winner of No. 4 Southeastern Louisiana and No. 8 Sam Houston State. The Colonels' next game will be at approximately at 4:30 today (Thursday). The winner of that contest faces McNeese in Friday's championship on ESPNU.
Like in Wednesday's win over SLU, the Colonels jumped out to an early lead with a 2-0 advantage through four innings.
Kasey Frederick was responsible for both of the Colonels' runs, driving in
Jewel Lara in the first on a single up the middle. Then in the fourth, Frederick hit a rocket over the wall in right-center for her seventh homer of the year.
But McNeese answered in the fifth when Morgan Catron ended
Megan Landry's shutout with a 2-run home run to left that tied it up. Landry tossed 5.0 innings with two earned runs on four hits and struck out two.
Alexis LaBure (13-5) was solid in relief, getting out of a jam in the sixth on a bases-loaded looking strikeout against Player of the Year Erika Piancastelli. The same scenario arose again in the bottom of the eighth, but this time Piancastelli came through with a single just out of reach of
Emma Holland at second base for the walk-off win.
Nicholls tagged Alexsandra Flores (18-9) for six hits, led by Frederick and Dares with two each. Strother also had a single and walked twice, and Lara's first-inning double led to the game's first run.
Taylor Strother had two hits for the Cowgirls.
