HAMMOND, La. - No. 3 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi scored all seven of its runs with two outs, helped by three home runs, as the Nicholls State University softball team saw its season come to an end with a 7-2 loss Wednesday evening in the Southland Conference Tournament at North Oak Park.
With the loss, Nicholls finished Coach
Justin Lewis' inaugural campaign with a 12-38 overall record. It marked the third consecutive season that the Red and Gray ended the year with 12 victories (12-28, '21; 12-14, '20).
While the Islanders used three home runs to fuel the offense, the Colonels were led by graduating senior
Bree Aguillard. Making just her 10th career start, Aguillard slapped a two-run double into the gap of left center in the second inning that cut an early 4-0 deficit in half.
But that would be all the runs for the Colonels for the rest of the game against AMCC starter Grace Gilbert. She held Nicholls to just three hits in her complete game and struck out six. All three hits came in the Colonel second as
Sadie Wells and
Samantha Gwiazda set up the two-run Aguillard double.
Brittney Turner was handed the loss, allowing four earned runs in 1.1 innings. After picking up the win over the Islanders in the series finale in April, Turner was unable to duplicate the effort and left the game after a solo home run and two run-scoring doubles in the second.
After Nicholls trimmed the lead in half, AMCC got on back in the fourth with a solo home run by Gabriella Torres off of
Paris Lehman. The Islanders then received a towering two-run homer in the fifth by Southland Player of the Year Pal Egan.
Lehman totaled 4.0 innings with three runs on nine hits.
Taryn Westbrook had a strong showing out of the bullpen, retiring all four batters she faced including one strikeout.
