NATCHITOCHES, La. – After being eliminated by McNeese in the championship the last two years, the Nicholls State University softball team was able to avenge the losses with a 10-4 victory late Thursday night at Lady Demon Diamond, putting the Colonels into the Southland Conference Tournament title round for the third consecutive season.
Nicholls (34-21) will now face top-seed Sam Houston State again on Friday and will need to defeat the Bearkats twice in order to claim the title. Sam Houston knocked off Nicholls earlier on Thursday in nine innings, 2-0.
The lingering loss may have caused the Colonels a slow start against McNeese (30-30), which jumped out to a 3-0 lead after an inning and a half. But
Kasey Frederick put Nicholls on the board with a solo home run in the second and the Colonels went on to tie the game with a three-run third.
Kali Clement started the rally with a run-scoring double, then Frederick landed a single inside the left field foul line for an RBI. The Colonel slugger, who moved into fourth all-time with her 23rd homer, set a new program record in RBIs with 124.
Samantha Dares capped the third with an RBI single to right.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth,
Caitlin Garcia sent a rocket over the right-center wall for a grand slam and an 8-4 advantage. Garcia has just two hits in the tournament, with the other being a 3-run homer in the opening win over host Northwestern State.
In the sixth,
Amanda Gianelloni gave Nicholls a five-run lead with a sacrifice fly. She entered the game tied for the previous all-time RBI record and then tied Frederick's new mark of 124. The final run scored on a McNeese error.
Megan Landry (27-11) did not make the start after throwing every pitch of the Colonels' nine-inning loss earlier in the day but picked up the win with four outstanding innings of relief. She allowed just two hits and struck out one.
Emily Danehower started her first career postseason game and went 1.2 innings with three earned runs on five hits. Two of the runs came on a home run by Alexandria Saldivar.
Nicholls finished with 14 hits, led by 3-for-4 nights by
Kelsey Miller and Clement. The duo also accounted for four runs.
Caroline Settle (8-9) took the loss for the Cowgirls with five earned runs on seven hits in 3.0 innings.
UP NEXT
Nicholls will take on Sam Houston State in the championship round Friday, with the opening game set to air at noon on ESPNU. The Colonels will need to defeat the Bearkats twice, while Sam Houston will take the title with a single victory. Nicholls has lost three of four games against Sam Houston this season, but the first three matchups were decided by a lone run before the Bearkats outlasted the Colonels in nine innings Thursday.
