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LAKE CHARLES, La. – The top-seed Nicholls State University softball team jumped out to a 2-0 advantage in the second inning against No. 4 Southeastern Louisiana, and the Colonels never surrendered the lead in a 7-4 victory Wednesday afternoon in the Southland Conference Tournament at Joe Miller Field.
With the win, the Colonels (39-13) advance to Thursday's semifinal round and will play No. 3 McNeese. The winner of Thursday's 11 a.m. game secures a spot in Friday's championship.
Nicholls outhit the Lady Lions (36-20) by two, 11-9, but three of SLU's hits came in the final frame after Nicholls built a 7-3 advantage behind another strong outing in the circle from Southland Pitcher of the Year
Megan Landry. Freshman
Alexis LaBure pitched the seventh, and after SLU scored a run and had two runners on base, she retired the potential game-tying run on a groundout to first to seal the win.
Landry improved to 22-7 on the season, allowing three earned runs on six hits. SLU scored its first runs of the game in the fourth against Landry and added one in the fifth, but could never tie the score.
Moriah Strother,
Emma Holland and
Kali Clement each had two hits for the Colonels. Strother blasted her eighth home run of the season in the third inning, going over the left-field scoreboard for a 3-0 lead. Half of Strother's homers this season have been in Lake Charles as she hit three in the series against McNeese.
Nicholls took advantage of a bad throw by SLU on a bunt in the second to grab the lead. With Clement on second,
Samantha Dares singled to left center for the game's first run, and
Kelsey Miller made it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly.
Strother's bomb in the third chased SLU starter Rachel Hayes (16-9). Hayes finished with three runs on three hits in 2.1 innings. Alley McDonald pitched the rest of the way for SLU.
SLU plated two runs in the fourth with the first coming on an RBI double by Mattie Ort. But Nicholls answered in the bottom half with an RBI infield single from Miller. With Holland on third after reaching on a double, Miller beat the throw to first on her hit and Holland was able to slide home safely for a 4-2 lead.
SLU scored another in the fifth, but Nicholls responded once again in their half. With two down and runners on second and third, Holland lined a base hit just off the glove of the leaping SLU shortstop, Jaquelyn Ramon, and both runners scored to make it 6-2. In the sixth, Strother doubled to left for an RBI and a 7-2 advantage.
Mahalia Gibson singled up the middle in the seventh for SLU's final run of the game. She paced the Lady Lions with a 3-for-4 day and two RBIs.
NOTES
The victory for the Colonels was their 12th consecutive …
Corynn Major singled in the game to extend her hitting streak to 11 games… Strother's eight home runs are the most for a Colonel in a season since 2011 (Ashley Ray, 17).
