HAMMOND, La. - After rallying back twice to even the score against upset-minded No. 7 HCU, the No. 3 Nicholls State University softball team saw its only lead of the night when senior
Alexa Poche' belted a walk-off home run in the seventh inning, sending the Colonels to the next round of the Southland Conference Tournament with a 5-4 victory over the Huskies late Tuesday night at North Oak Park.
After Nicholls allowed HCU to regain the lead in the fourth with its second error of the night, All-Conference selection
Abby Andersen brought in the tying run in the sixth with a groundout. Then with the game knotted at 4-4 in the seventh, Poche' blasted an 0-1 pitch off of Lyndie Swanson for her fifth home run of the season and 20th of her career.
With the win, Nicholls (30-24) will take on No. 2 Southeastern at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The loser of that game will turn around and face No. 5 Lamar at 4 p.m. right after while the winner advances to Thursday's round.
Averi Paden (8-4) picked up the win in relief, allowing just one hit in three shutout innings. Although she did not record a strikeout, a leadoff single in the sixth was the only base runner she allowed.
Nicholls had to climb back from a 3-0 deficit in the first inning. While starter
Audrey McNeill struggled a bit early with two walks in the first, an error resulted in two of the runs being unearned.
In the third, the Colonels pieced together their first rally with a three-spot to even the score.
Samantha Gwiazda led off the frame with a single and stole second. Andersen sent a base hit back up the middle for the first Colonel run of the night. Poche' drew her first of two walks of the game and was pinch ran for by
Laylin Sturm. Sturm stole second to put runners in scoring position and
Riley Rutherford came through with a game-tying hit. Rutherford hit a dribbler to third and beat out the throw at first. Andersen scored easily on the play and Sturm raced all the way from second to beat the throw home for a rare two-RBI infield single for Rutherford.
In the HCU fourth, the Colonel defense had a miscue that led to another run, but made two plays to get out of the inning. After throwing the ball away on a routine grounder, Gwiazda made up for it when she fielded a grounder at short and fired home for the second out. Then AB Garcia singled to center but Juls Garcia was thrown out at third by
Gabby Higbee.
Paden took over in the circle in the fifth and kept HCU off the board the rest of the way.
For the Colonel sixth,
Claire Sisco laced her second hit of the day to lead off and
Molly VandenBout stepped up with a pinch-hit single. Gwiazda moved the runners over on a sacrifice bunt, setting up Andersen's RBI groundout.
Swanson took the loss for HCU, allowing three hits in 3.0 innings. She had dominated the Colonels in the series win in Houston earlier, allowing one run in 17 innings.
Nicholls outhit HCU, 8-5, with Sisco the lone Colonels with a multi-hit game. Jackie Jessup was 2-for-2 for the Huskies.
