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The Nicholls State University softball team is officially going back to the postseason.
The Colonels clinched their spot in the Southland Conference Tournament this weekend, sweeping Texas A&M – Corpus Christi in a three-game home series.
With the wins, Nicholls is now 33-17 overall and 17-7 in Southland play.
The Colonels will either be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament, depending on how the team’s series goes with Lamar this weekend – the regular season finale for both teams.
Nicholls is currently one game ahead of the Cardinals, who sit in third place. Whoever wins the series will be the No. 2 seed in the postseason tournament, which decides the Southland’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
“We want to play our best in the games that matter most,” Colonels coach Angel Santiago said earlier this season. “We don’t want to peak too early. We want to come together right at the right time and play the best in the late stages of the season. I think we understand that.”
It sure looked like it throughout the weekend.
The Colonels entered the series having lost four out of their previous six Southland games – the only lull the team has had this season.
That didn’t bother the Colonels in game one of this series on Friday night, as Nicholls roared to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning after a rally.
The runs were all the Colonels on Friday, because pitcher Megan Landry was on fire in the circle.
Landry earned the win in game one, tossing more than five innings, while allowing just five hits. She struck out five hitters without a walk in the game, throwing 91 pitches.
With Landry getting outs, the Colonels also got insurance, plating a run in the third, two more in the fifth and then one in the sixth to put the game away and send it to its final score – a 7-0 victory.
Infielder Brooke Morris and outfielders Kasey Frederick and Samantha Mracich were huge in the win, each recording multi-hit days to spark Nicholls’ offense.
In Saturday’s double-header, the Colonels kept that same momentum, winning both a pitcher’s duel and also a shutout to complete the sweep.
In game one of the noon-afternoon doubleheader, the Colonels rode the dominant arm of pitcher Jackie Johnson to secure a 3-1 victory in a fast-paced, 88-minute game.
Johnson worked six and two-thirds innings for the Colonels, allowing just three hits in the win.
Taylor Hastings came on in relief and got the final out to earn the save.
Offensively, Nicholls struggled a little with the Lady Islanders’ pitching in the game, but they did enough to win.
The Colonels plated single runs in the second, fifth and sixth innings, making the most of just five hits in the game.
The bats did end up heating up a little later in the day.
In the finale, Nicholls exploded offensively, registering 13 hits and four multi-run innings to coast to an easy 9-4 victory to complete the sweep.
Nicholls controlled the game throughout, posting three runs in the first and two runs in the second inning to score a 5-1 lead.
That advantage allowed the Colonels to wiggle through what ended up being a sloppily played game.
The Colonels committed five errors in the victory – the most errors they’ve committed in a victorious effort on the season.
But it didn’t matter because of the offense, but also because of a nice outing from Mracich, who moved out of her usual outfield position and into the circle – with great success.
Mracich worked four innings in the circle, allowing three hits and four runs – just one earned. With the win, she’s now 3-0 on the season as a pitcher.
In relief, Landry finished the sweep, recording the final nine outs of the game – five by strikeout – to record her sixth save.
Texas A&M – Corpus Christi did make it interesting, though. The Lady Islanders rallied from the early deficit and cut Nicholls’ lead to 5-4 in the fifth inning – a rallied aided by the Colonels’ errors.
But in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Colonels took control back, thanks to RBI singles from Mracich and outfielder Jessica Taylor, which made the game 7-4.
Nicholls put the game away in the sixth, scoring two more – first on a wild pitch, which scored Morris and later on an RBI groundout from Mracich, which scored first baseman Kasey Frederick.
With the victories, the Colonels will take momentum into the final weekend series of the season.
Nicholls will travel to Lamar over the weekend – a matchup between the two teams most likely to challenge No. 1-seed McNeese State in the Southland Tournament.
Friday, the teams will play an afternoon-night doubleheader – the first game set for 4 p.m. and the next scheduled for 6.
On Saturday, the regular season will end at 1 p.m.
The Southland Conference Tournament begins one week from today in Conway, Arkansas.
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