Nicholls softball, baseball endure tough weekends

All season long, the Nicholls State University softball team has made its mark by winning close games in the late innings.

This weekend at Northwestern State University, they got a dose of their own medicine.

The Lady Demons took two of three from Nicholls this weekend, beating the Colonels by just one run in both of their wins.

The losses dropped Nicholls to 14-7 in Southland Conference play, virtually eliminating the team from contention for the regular season title.

But that doesn’t much matter to the Colonels, because they know that in order to reach the NCAA Tournament, they will have to win the Southland Conference Tournament in May.

“We want to be that team that plays its best softball at the end of the season in the brightest lights,” Colonels coach Angel Santiago said earlier in the season. “The hard work and progression all is so that we can get to the end of the season and play as many games as we can in the postseason.”

This past weekend, the Colonels got snake bitten by their own formula.

The Lady Demons opened the series with a victory on Friday night, using a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the seventh inning to secure a 2-1 win.

Northwestern struck first, scoring a run in the bottom of the third inning on a solo home run from Kellye Kincannon – a lead that held until the late stages of the game.

But the Colonels did what they always tend to do – they battled back.

Nicholls tied the game in a wild, seventh-inning rally, sparked with a solo home run from Kasey Frederick.

But unlike other times this past season, this time, the Colonels couldn’t finish the deal.

The Lady Demons took back control of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, winning the game on a walk-off base hit from Sidney Salmans. That hit spoiled a solid start from Colonels starting pitcher Jackie Johnson, who was flawless throughout the game, allowing just five hits in 112 pitches.

Nicholls did get a little revenge on Saturday, even while the Lady Demons got the last laugh.

The first half of the double-header belonged to the Colonels, who scored six runs in the second inning to take a lead that they’d never relinquish.

Nicholls drew four walks in the inning, taking advantage of some wild Lady Demons pitching.

The big blow in the inning was a two-RBI single from shortstop Amanda Gianelloni – her only hit of the game.

The Lady Demons scored two runs in the bottom of the second inning to trim the Colonels’ advantage to 6-2, but they never got any closer, thanks to some tandem pitching from Johnson and Megan Landry, who pitched the final three innings of the game to get her fifth save of the season.

But just a few hours later, the Lady Demons finally got hold of Nicholls’ pitching and found a way to clinch a series victory.

In the rubber match between the teams, Northwestern struck first, plating two in the first inning to take an early lead.

But Nicholls rallied back, using three runs in the third inning and one in the fourth inning to take hold of the game and own a 4-3 lead.

The big blow in the rally was a three-run home run from Frederick, who recorded four RBI in the game.

But this time, Nicholls couldn’t finish the deal.

After surrendering the lead, Northwestern battled back with a three-run home run of their own in the bottom of the fifth inning – a blast by infielder Micayla Sorosiak, which put the Lady Demons up 6-4.

As-always, Nicholls did have some late inning magic, scoring a run in the sixth inning to cut the lead to 6-5.

But in the seventh, Northwestern State fixed itself and steadied the ship, pushing past the Colonels in order to secure a 6-5 victory and the series win.

With the weekend done, the Colonels are now four games back of McNeese State for first place in the Southland Conference.

The Colonels have to finish the season on a good note, because they are also just one game ahead of Lamar, which sits at 13-8.

The Colonels and Cardinals will play a three-game series in Beaumont to close the season.

The coming weekend, Nicholls will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi – the team currently in last place in the Southland standings.

COLONELS BASEBALL FALLS TO SOUTHEASTERN

The Nicholls baseball team also struggled this weekend, dropping two out of three games at Southeastern.

The Colonels lost their two home games in the series, falling 4-0 on Friday night, then 11-6 on Sunday afternoon to surrender the series to the rival Lions. On Saturday, Nicholls played in Hammond and got their only win of the series – a 3-2 triumph.

Starter Mike Hanchar was dominant in the victory, recording 26 out of the 27 necessary outs for the Colonels, allowing just two hits, while striking out 11 in 133 pitches.

Alex Ernestine earned the save for Nicholls after Adam Tarver first came in relief, but allowed two-straight batters to reach base.

The Colonels are now 8-10 in Southland play.

They will travel and play three games at Lamar this weekend.

Nicholls softball

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