Colonels finish as Southland runners-up

The Nicholls State University softball team has consistently beaten just about everyone in the Southland Conference over the past few years.

But they have one nemesis they just can’t quite evade: McNeese State University.

The Cowgirls and Colonels met again this past weekend and yet again, McNeese got the best of the Colonels, taking home the conference’s biggest prize.

Nicholls finished as the runners-up at the Southland Conference Tournament, despite holding the No. 1 seed going into the event.

The Colonels won two games, beating Southeastern twice in the event.

The two defeats were both to McNeese State, which beat the Colonels in the late-innings in two-straight days to punch the ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

In the Championship Game, the Colonels led 2-1 in the top of the seventh inning when the Cowgirls plated three runs in their final at-bat to win the game.

If Nicholls would have held on, they would have had to beat McNeese again as the rubber-match to the earlier defeat.

This is the third-straight season McNeese wins the Southland. It’s the second year in a row that they beat the Colonels in the Championship Game.

“I’m excited for my kids right now,” McNeese coach James Landreneau said. “Words will never describe how proud I am of them for staying the course. Our girls never wavered, they just kept coming to practice even when things didn’t go like we wanted them to early in the season. … I feel very blessed to be able to coach a fine group of ladies.”

The Cowgirls again emerged as the victors, but the Colonels showed loud and clear that they are a very real threat at the title – both now and into the future.

Nicholls won the regular season Southland Conference Title, which carried them into the event as the No. 1 seed – an honor which comes with a bye to the semifinals of the winner’s bracket.

After waiting out games on Tuesday, the Colonels moved to the finals of the winner’s bracket with a 7-4 win over Southeastern on Wednesday.

Nicholls never trailed against the Lions, crushing 11 hits and scoring in five of the six innings they batted.

The production was all-encompassing. Nicholls got hits from eight of its nine regular starters in the win, which helped Megan Landry earn the win in the circle, despite not having her best stuff. She allowed three hits in six innings.

With the win over the Lady Lions, the Colonels next took on McNeese with the winner of that game being guaranteed at least a runner-up finish and also the honor of having to be beaten twice in the Championship Round to be eliminated.

McNeese, as they always tend to do, found a way.

Nicholls led the Cowgirls 2-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, thanks to an RBI single and a home run by Kasey Frederick, which looked like it might be enough to allow the Colonels to get the monkey off their backs.

But in the late innings, McNeese didn’t buckle.

Morgan Catron homered off Landry in the bottom of the fifth inning, which tied the game at 2 – a score which held into extra innings.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, McNeese delivered the final blow when Erika Piancastelli stroked a walk-off base hit to seal the victory.

The situation was heartbreaking for Nicholls, of course, because of the high-stakes in the game. But it was even more-so because Nicholls actually recorded three outs in the eighth inning. Alexis LaBure struck out Taylor Edwards with one out in the inning, but she reached when the pitch got by catcher Moriah Strother, which allowed her to reach safely, thus negating the out.

After a fielder’s choice ground-out, Piancastelli got her base hit, which plated Edwards, who touched home, despite striking out in the frame.

After the loss, the Colonels fell to the finals of the loser’s bracket where they faced Southeastern again – about three hours after the loss against McNeese.

The Colonels never blinked, playing their most complete game of the week in a 5-1 shellacking of the Lady Lions, which set the stage for the rematch with McNeese where the Colonels had to win twice to take home the title.

But they couldn’t pull it off.

Like their first matchup with the Cowgirls, Nicholls led for most of the game.

The Cowgirls manufactured a run in the top of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, but Nicholls erased that and tied the game in the bottom of the third inning on a moonshot home run from Samantha Dares.

In the bottom of the fifth, Nicholls went ahead when Kali Clement matched Dares’ dinger with one of her own to put the Colonels up 2-1 – an advantage which held until the top of the seventh inning – the Cowgirls’ final at-bat of the game.

But again, they found a way to do it big when it mattered most.

McNeese scored three runs in the inning, led off by a home run from Piancastelli to tie the game.

The Cowgirls also got an RBI bunt single and an RBI hit from Brenique Brown in the rally, which put them ahead 4-2.

Nicholls had the last at-bat, but hopes for late-game magic were for naught.

McNeese pitcher Alexsandra Flores struck out the side and ended the game without a base runner, thus ending the Colonels’ ride.

For Nicholls, the loss was bitter because the team was so close.

But the future is bright.

The Colonels were young in 2018, starting just one senior in their regular lineup, which also featured several freshmen.

Softball

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