Nicholls State falls just short of Southland softball title

After winning two extra-inning battles to get to the Southland Conference Tournament title game, Nicholls seemed to be two outs away from another.

Instead, Stephen F. Austin’s Ashley Struchtemeyer hit a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the seventh to take the 2008 SLC Championship by the score of 2-1.

The Lady Jacks (36-23, 18-11 SLC) secured the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

“I can’t tell you enough how proud I am to be a coach and a part of this team. I think that we definitely proved that we belonged here this weekend,” said head coach Jenny Parsons.

“We are saying goodbye to some great players who will be graduating, and we definitely would not have gotten to where we were without them. We are going to miss them all,” she added.

Landing on the 2008 All-Tournament Team from Nicholls were seniors Krystalin Ensminger, Kat Harrell and Amy Thibodeaux, junior Danielle Clayton and sophomore Audrey Wood.

The Colonels finished the season 31-28 overall, 15-14 in conference and take SLC runner-up honors for the first time since 2003. While the season ended with one swing of the bat, Nicholls made an amazing run at the 2008 SLC Tournament title.

Nicholls entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed and defeated No. 7-seed Sam Houston State in the first round.

In the quarterfinals against No. 3 Texas-San Antonio, NSU needed a gritty 139-pitch performance from Ensminger and solo homers from Harrell (one) and Thibodeaux (two, game-tying in the seventh and the game-winner in the 10th) for a 3-2 victory.

Thibodeaux is now Nicholls’ all-time career leader in homeruns with 30 and the single-season leader with 14.

In the semifinals against No. 2 Texas-Arlington, NSU broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the eighth, including the game-winning homer by Harrell, for 5-2 win.

“From top to bottom, we played true team ball this weekend,” said Parsons. “Our entire team was dedicated in every aspect of the game to win. I just can’t say it enough about how proud I am of this team.”

The Colonels scored in the top of the second when SFA’s Monika Covington gave up a bases loaded walk to give Nicholls a 1-0 lead. That was all Nicholls got in the inning, stranding three base runners. For the game, Nicholls left six on base to the SFA’s four.

The Lady Jacks scored in the bottom of the sixth when Harrell committed a critical fielding error that allowed Kendall Harper to score from third to tie the game 1-1.

The next inning, Struchtemeyer hit a solo bomb over the right center field wall to lift the Lady Jacks to the 2-1 victory.

Dubbed with the loss was Ensminger (10-13) who pitched 1.1 innings, allowing two hits and two runs (one earned). Picking up the win and Tournament MVP honors was SFA’s Covington (20-12), who threw the complete game win. Covington yielded one run on six hits while fanning nine.

Leading the Colonels at the plate was senior Rachel Pugh and sophomore Nicole Smith with a 2-for-3 showing, while Clayton and Thibodeaux each went 1-for-3 with Thibodeaux scoring a run.

Nicholls State pitcher Krystalin Ensminger, one of the team’s outgoing seniors, was charged with the loss. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF