HAMMOND, La. - After dropping Saturday's first game, 5-3, the Nicholls State University softball team bounced back with a 4-2 victory to claim the series against Southeastern for the second straight season.

Despite the series victory, Nicholls (29-21, 19-8 SLC) was unable to catch Southeastern (43-13, 21-6 SLC) for the No. 2 seed in next week's opening round of the Southland Conference Tournament. As the top two seeds, SLU and league champion McNeese will each host one of the two four-team brackets. The Colonels will return to Hammond along with HCU and either Lamar or Stephen F. Austin. 

Thursday's opener at North Oak Park is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Nicholls finished the season winning 19 of its last 21 games and its last six Southland series. 

Game 1 - SLU 5, Nicholls 3

A three-run fifth inning by the Lady Lions proved to be too much to overcome as the Colonels fell 5-3 in Saturday's opener.

SLU never trailed in the game, scoring on a triple in the second before Chloe Magee homered in the third. 

Nicholls got on the board in the fifth on a Laylin Sturm RBI single, but SLU's Lainee Bailey stranded runners in scoring position to keep the lead. In the bottom half, SLU used four hits to plate three runs to go back up 5-1.

The Colonels pulled within two after Riley Rutherford came through with a two-run single in the sixth, but were shut out in the seventh.

Nicholls had five hits in the loss, highlighted by a triple from Claire Sisco and a double by Brynne Songy. Molly VandenBout took the loss with four earned runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings.

Game 2 - Nicholls 4, SLU 2

VandenBout belted a three-run homer in the fifth to break a scoreless tie as the Colonels took the series against SLU with a 4-2 win.

SLU answered with a solo shot by Maddie Watson in the bottom half and added a run on a sac fly in the sixth. Nicholls got the run back on a Reagan Heflin RBI groundout in the seventh before Sierra Ouellette closed out the game by stranding the tying runs on base.

Averi Paden picked up the win with two earned runs on six hits in 5.0 innings. Paden improved to 10-6 on the season and 8-0 in conference. Ouellette notched her first save in two innings of work.

VandenBout led the offense with two hits while Muccilli added a double to spark the three-run fifth. A hit-by-pitch put the second runner on before VandenBout sent her third homer of the season over the left field wall for what turned out to be the game winner. 

Hallie Burns suffered the loss with three earned runs on six hits in 5.0 innings.