LAKE CHARLES, La. – The No. 3 Nicholls State University Colonels stayed alive in the 2023 Southland Conference Softball Tournament with a 2-1 win over No. 7 HCU to start action Thursday at Cowgirl Diamond.
Nicholls moves to 28-23 overall on the season and will face No. 5 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in another elimination game at 4 p.m. Thursday. The Huskies' season ends at 20-33.
Both pitching units were strong, as Nicholls starter
Audrey McNeill (13-8) went the distance allowing one run on four hits with six strikeouts, and HCU's Grofman allowed only two runs in 5.0 innings on five hits with five strikeouts.
For the Colonels, the scoring came with two outs in the third inning, when
Alexa Poche' hit a two-run home run to left-center, driving in
Abby Andersen who had singled to lead off the inning.
Autumn Sydlik led off the top of the fourth for HCU with a solo homer to the left-center gap, followed by Jasie Roberts working her way to third on a walk, sacrifice bunt, and wild pitch with one out, but she was stranded there.
From there, McNeill did not allow a Husky to reach base, keeping the Colonels' tournament run going. In her three starts against the Huskies, McNeill went 3-0 with a 0.32 ERA, striking out 20 while allowing just one earned run in 22.0 innings.
For Nicholls, Poche' went 2-for-3 and was the only Colonel with multiple hits. For HCU, SLC Freshman of the Year AB Garcia had two infield singles.
FOLLOW ALONG
For the full updated schedule and links for coverage, please visit the Southland Tournament Page
here. For up-to-the-minute updates on delays and schedule changes, follow
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@SouthlandSports on Twitter.
