THIBODAUX, La. - Audrey McNeill tossed her first complete game shutout and the Colonels mustered more than enough offense as the Nicholls State University softball team won its opening Southland Conference series with a 3-0 victory against UIW on Saturday afternoon at Swanner Field at GeoSurfaces Park.
With the win, Nicholls improved to 15-9 overall and 2-1 in the Southland. It marked the first SLC series victory for second-year head coach
Justin Lewis and the first at home for the program since 2019.
After throwing a complete game in Friday night's five-inning victory, McNeill was superb once again in earning the shutout, allowing just three hits while striking out three. Her counterpart, Aaliyah Garcia, was just as impressive in the early going as she kept the Colonels hitless through three innings.
But in the fourth,
Erin Krause led off with a base hit and
Melise Gossen followed with a single. After a sacrifice bunt,
Molly VandenBout sent a deep shot to the outfield for a sacrifice fly and a 1-0 Colonel lead.
In the fifth, UIW answered with two hits of their own to start the inning. McNeill fielded a grounder for the first out and then notched a huge strikeout. Following a walk, McNeill forced a hard groundout to second which was fielded perfectly by
MaKynli Miller to strand all three runners.
In the bottom half, Miller delivered a one-out double and came around to score on a
Claire Sisco base hit to left. The Colonels then added a run in the sixth on a pinch-hit RBI single by
Mckenzie Champagne.
Including the groundout to end the fifth, McNeill retired the final seven Cardinals she faced to secure the shutout.
Krause and Miller each finished with two hits to lead the Colonel offense. Garcia allowed eight hits but helped negate the damage with seven strikeouts.
ON DECK
Nicholls will hit the road next weekend for a three-game series at Texas A&M-Commerce.
