CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Averi Paden tossed a complete game while an RBI single by Reagan Heflin in the third inning turned out to be the decisive run as the Nicholls State University softball team won its 15th consecutive game with a 2-1 victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday afternoon at Chapman Field.

Nicholls (25-20) has climbed up the Southland standings with its fourth straight series sweep, sitting at 15-6 in league play. The Colonels will host Northwestern State on Thursday and Friday for their final home games of the season. 

Runs were at a premium in the finale against AMCC with neither team scoring in the last four innings. Each team pushed a run across in the first with Molly VandenBout ripping a single up the middle to plate Erin Krause. The Islanders answered with two hits in the bottom half and scored on a double steal.

In the third, VandenBout hit her 14th double of the season and scored on the next pitch when Heflin stroked a single to left center for a 2-1 advantage.

The Islanders threatened to tie the game in the fourth after Monee Montilla doubled and moved over to third on a flyout. But Paden fielded a grounder and retired the batter to keep the lead. In the fifth, Paden gave up a pair of two-out singles before forcing an infield popup to end the threat.

AMCC started the seventh with a single and Paden followed with her fourth strikeout. She then needed just three pitches to retire the final two batters as the Colonels picked up the sweep.

VandenBout led the offense with two of the Colonels' eight hits. Krause and Laylin Sturm each had a single to extend their hitting streaks to 13 and 10 games, respectively. Claire Sisco saw her streak of eight games come to an end after going 0-for-2 with a walk and hit-by-pitch. It also marked the first time in conference play she did not record a hit, hitting safely in each of the first 20 games.

For the Islanders, six different players had one hit. Zoe Hardy took the loss with one run on five hits in 2.0 innings.