Big Heflin hit, stellar Yoo pitching lead Nicholls to 1-0 win over McNeese and DH split

Reagan Heflin showed you can indeed get the bat on the ball against McNeese State pitcher Shaelyn Sanders.

After allowing only one hit and striking out 10 as the starter of the opening game of double-header between Nicholls and McNeese on Friday at Swanner Field, Heflin entered the game in relief in the top of the seventh inning.

Ryann Schexnayder, the starter in the second game for the Cowgirls, and Nicholls pitcher Molly Yoo, each had shutouts working going into the bottom of fifth inning.

Nicholls pinch-hitter Abby Andersen opened the inning with a double to right center field. She moved over to third on a sacrifice bunt by Samantha Gwiazda.

Sanders entered the game in relief of Schexnayder and got Claire Sisco to foul out to left field. Helfin followed with a hit that fell in front over the McNeese second baseman, allowing Andersen to score from third base and a 1-0 Nicholls lead.

“We finally got the opportunity to get somebody on third base. I just knew I had to do my job and get a little base hit and not do too much and just go with the pitches and hit it where it was pitched,” Helfin said.

Previous at-bats against Sanders in the first game, Helfin said, helped her when facing the dominant McNeese pitcher against in the second game.

“I feel like I knew I just needed to go with my plan. My last night at-bat the last game was better than all my other at-bats. I knew I just needed to do that and stay small – basically base hits up the middle and get the job done,” said Helfin.

After falling behind, McNeese had a runner on first with one out following a Nicholls error. After Yoo struck out Corine Poncho, pinch-runner Rylee Eyster attempted to steal second base.

Nicholls catcher Brynne Songy lived up to her nickname of “Cajun Cannon” by gunning Eyster at second base to end the inning.

“She’s got an amazing arm,” Nicholls coach Justin Lewis said. “Defensively. I’ll put her up against anybody in the country. She had a couple of other attempts early and she has really small hands, so she dropped couple of them, which was a little disappointing, but she came up with the big throw when we needed it.”

“We just needed to execute and that was like one of the things that we needed to do – and I needed to do personally. I wasn’t going to let it happen again,” Songy said.

In several games earlier this season, Nicholls held leads going into the seventh inning against some big-name opponents. The Lady Colonels made things a bit interesting again on Friday.

After an Alexis Dibbley single, Yoo hit Crislyne Moreno with a pitch with one out, putting the potential tying and go-ahead runners on base.

Jada Munoz flied out to right field. On the play, Gwiazda, the Nicholls shortstop took the relay throw from Heflin, the right fielder. Moreno, who had ventured away from first base, attempted to return to the bag. Gwiazda tagged Moreno for the out, giving Nicholls the 1-0 win.

“That’s not a typical play that McNeese does. We can’t count on stuff like that happening again,” Lewis said. “We just got fortunate. We got lucky, we made the cut and Sam just ran her down.”

It marked the first time in three years as coach for Lewis and his team to get a win over the Cowgirls.

“They’re the class of the conference. Every year we’ve gotten closer and closer, so to finally get over the hump, so to speak – barely, but we got over it. We’ll look forward to tomorrow and see how it goes,” said Lewis.

The win improved Nicholls to 4-1 in the Southland and 16-13 overall. The conference opener for McNeese left the Cowgirls 1-1 in the league and 15-13 overall.

Yoo (5-3) was in control from the start, hurling like a pitcher that might need to toss a shutout in order for her team to win. She tossed a two-hit complete game with one walk.

“That’s what she’s capable of every time she goes out,” Lewis said. “We’ve been working on her to believe in herself. If that kid ever believes in herself as much as I do, she’s going to be a world beater.”

“I was just trying to keep it simple and try to play my game, throw my pitches, and beat them with that – not pitch to them, but pitch to my strengths,” said Yoo.

Schexnayder (4-2) suffered the loss, allowing one run on five hits, with two strikeouts.

The double-header, originally scheduled for the afternoon, was moved up to 11 a.m. because of potential concerns about the weather. It rained in the early innings of the opening game but the games were never seriously threatened after that point.

The teams are scheduled to close out the series with a single game slated to begin at noon Saturday.

McNeese 4, Nicholls 1: Sanders faced one batter above the minimum through four innings before giving up a run in an unusual fashion.

Sanders hit the first batter she faced then retired 12 in a row, including striking out eight.

The first hit Sanders allowed was a leadoff single to Molly VandenBout in the bottom of the fifth inning.

With a runner on first base and two outs, Sanders appeared to get out of the inning with a strikeout of Gabby Higbee. Higbee struck out swinging, but Cowgirls catcher Chloe Gomez didn’t come up cleanly on the tipped ball on what was ruled a wild pitch. Gomez attempted to tag Higbee with first base occupied, but the home plate umpire ruled Gomez missed the tag.

Thinking the inning was over with the strikeout, the Cowgirls let up. Erin Krause, who had reached base earlier in the inning on a fielder’s choice, came all the way around to score, tying the game at 1-1.

McNeese had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth. With runners on the corners, Samanatha Mundine took off from first base. She was caught in a rundown, but Mariana Torres scored from third base before the out was made, giving the Cowgirls a 1-0 lead.

After Nicholls tied the game in the bottom of the fifth, the Cowgirls got the run back and then some in the top of the sixth.

A leadoff homer run by Poncho quickly tied the game.

Nicholls pitcher Audrey McNeill hit Gomez with a pitch with one out and Rylie Bouvier followed with a single, setting up a two-run bloop single by Moreno and a 4-1 McNeese lead.

McNeill pitched out of a couple of jams earlier in the game.

With the bases loaded with one out in the top of the second inning, McNeill got Reese Reyna to hit a comebacker to the mound, leading to a force-out at home. McNeill then got Torres to fly out to center field to end the inning.

In the third inning and a runner on second base and one out, McNeill struck out the next two McNeese batters to avoid any damage.

Sanders (7-6) closed out the game by striking out Krause in the bottom of the seventh to finish with 10 strikeouts in going the distance. She allowed one run on one hit.

McNeill (7-8) also went the distance in suffering the loss. She allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk, while striking out six.