THIBODAUX, La. - The Nicholls State University softball team will conclude the regular season with a three-game series at Northwestern State, starting with a Friday doubleheader at 4:00 p.m. Saturday's finale is scheduled for noon.
Nicholls (27-20, 15-9 SLC) enters the final week in a third-place tie with McNeese, and both teams trail UIW by a game for second in the standings. The Colonels hold a tiebreaker against both squads, sweeping McNeese while winning two-of-three at UIW. UIW ends the regular season at first-place Southeastern, while the Cowgirls take on last-place East Texas A&M.
Nicholls is also only a game up on Lamar who swept the Colonels in Beaumont. And this weekend's opponent, Northwestern State (23-25, 12-12 SLC), could catch the Colonels in the standings with a sweep.
With a lot to be sorted out, Nicholls could finish as high as No. 2 and as low as No. 5. Three wins would give Nicholls no worse than a No. 3 seed and paired with a UIW loss, the Colonels would be No. 2 and host one side of the bracket next weekend. Any other seeding would be determined on the rest of the league's results.
Nicholls is coming off a busy week where they hosted two Southland series. The Colonels took two-of-three against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the midweek matchup and then won the opener against Southeastern before dropping the final two. It marked the first series loss against the Lions since 2023.
This weekend's matchup is about as evenly as one could be on the offensive side. The Colonels rank sixth in the Southland with a .292 batting average, followed by Northwestern State at .283. In runs scored, the teams hold the same league ranking with the Colonels plating 244 runs while the Demons have 237.
While
Reagan Heflin sports the Colonels' top batting average in league play at .361, the run production has been spread across the lineup with six batters having at least 10 RBIs.
Madison Moak has a team-high 16 and is followed by
Gabby Higbee (15),
Erin Krause (14), Heflin and
Lilianna Robledo (13), and
Kayleigh Lugowski (12).
In the circle, the series features the league's top two aces. NSU's Mattison Buster and the Colonels'
Molly Yoo rank No. 1 and 2, respectively, in league play in innings pitched and strikeouts. Both also have a league-high 10 victories on the season.
The Colonels have won the last two series against the Demons, including a sweep in Natchitoches in 2024. Last year, Northwestern State won the second game of the series in Thibodaux to snap the Colonels' 16-game winning streak.
