Nicholls softball faces tough bounce-back week with games at UL-Lafayette, SLU

Justin Lewis is among the first to say his softball team had a disappointing weekend when Nicholls dropped a Southland Conference series at Houston Christian.

Nicholls was never able to figure out Houston Christian pitcher Lyndie Swanson, and as a result, the Lady Colonels lost two of three games in the series.

Swanson pitched all 10 innings in HCU’s 5-1 win Saturday afternoon in the series finale. In the opening game of a double-header on Friday, Swanson went the distance in a 4-0 win for the Huskies.

Nicholls won the second game of the double-header on Friday 7-1 to avoid a series sweep.

“A reoccurring thing in our chats is the bats haven’t woke up,” Lewis said. “It’s a series we felt we definitely should have won. The pitching was good enough to win. The defense was good enough to win. The bats let us down again.

“We’re running out of time as we keep talking about, but there was some glimmers of hope for some people that had been struggling that the swings looked way better. Their approaches, the pitches they were swinging at were better.”

The results left Nicholls 10-5 in the Southland and 23-19 overall. HCU doubled its conference win total in the series, moving to 4-11 in league play and 17-20 overall.

Nicholls did manage 22 hits over the course of the three games, but the Lady Colonels were unable to produce timely hits, scoring a total of one run in their two losses.

Nicholls plays at No. 21 Louisiana-Lafayette 6 p.m. Wednesday before a three-game Southland Conference series at Southeastern Louisiana.

ULL is coming off a Sun Belt series in which the Ragin’ Cajuns took two of three games over Texas State. UL-Lafayette lost 5-0 in the finale on Sunday to snap an 11-game winning streak. ULL played at No. 6 LSU on Tuesday before facing Nicholls.

“Their environment’s amazing over there,” said Lewis. “The town really supports that program and that’s why they have the resources. They have Power-5 resources at a mid-major level and it’s because of the support they get. It’s what all of us mid-majors strive for is that.

“They’ve got great pitching and they’re deep. They’ve won like 88-straight conference series (actually 86, dating back to 2013). They’re a really good team and they’re really experienced, and we’re going to have to play a really perfect game to beat them.”

UL-Lafayette is 29-14, including an 8-2 win at Nicholls on Feb. 27.

In the win in Thibodaux, Sam Roe staked ULL to a 2-0 lead with a home run in the first inning. Nicholls quickly cut the margin to 2-1 but the Lady Colonels managed only one run the remaining of the game. All of the Ragin’ Cajuns’ runs in the game came with two outs.

Southeastern Louisiana is 13-2 in the conference and 36-8 overall. SLU is second in the SLC behind 14-1 McNeese.

SLU is coming off a three-game home sweep of Northwestern State. SLU won the opening game 5-4, the second game 5-1, and the finale, 8-4.

“Last year, we broke through against them,” said Lewis. “We hadn’t beaten them, and we beat them one game and felt like we should have won the other game.

Nicholls defeated SLU 8-2 a year ago before dropping the next two 5-4 and 8-4.

“They’ve got some talented arms, and our bats are going to have to be better than they’ve been in order for us to have a chance,” Lewis said.

The talented arms include Cera Blanchard and Ellie DuBois.

“Blanchard and Dubois are really, really good. They go up, down, they change speeds. They do a good job, and they really exploit your hitters,” Lewis said.

DuBois got the win in Game 1. She allowed one run on four hits and two walks, while striking out two in going the distance.

DuBois, who is second in the SLC, is 12-3 on the season with a 1.52 ERA. She has allowed 18 runs on 64 hits and 26 walks, while striking out 58 batters in 82 2/3 innings. In SLC play, she is 4-1 with a 1.04 ERA. She has allowed four runs on 22 hits and nine walks, while striking out 19 in 27 innings.

Blanchard allowed no runs on four hits and one walk, while striking out five in six innings in Game 2.

Blanchard got the win in Game 3, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks, while striking out four in five innings.

Blanchard, who ranks first in the SLC, is 15-1 on the season with a 1.38 ERA. She has allowed 19 runs on 66 hits and 32 walks, while striking out 78 in 96 2/3 innings. In conference play, she has an 8-0 record, a 0.63 ERA, allowing four runs on 33 hits and 11 walks, while striking out 35.

If Nicholls is looking for a weakness in the Lions, it won’t come from the basepath. SLU has stolen 128 of 153 bases.

“They’re super pesky on the base pass,” said Lewis. “They play a similar style of offense as us. They run a lot, they bunt, and they look for opportunities to take advantage of your mistakes.

“We built this team basically to help us beat McNeese in Southeastern, which is you have to have catchers that can really catch and throw, which we have. That helps neutralize the track meet that they try to put on.”

Ka’Lyn Watson leads the team in hitting with a .407 average with five home runs to lead the team. She also leads the team in stolen bases with 22 steals in 25 attempts.

Bailey Krolczyk and Maria Detillier shared the team lead in runs batted with 35 apiece. Krolczyk is second on the team in batting average at .390 and has four home runs.

Detillier is third in hitting at .359 with four home runs.

Nine SLU players are hitting .283 or higher. The team’s batting average is a SLC-best .340.

“They’re probably the best hitting team in the conference right now,” Lewis said. “I know UIW’s hitting pretty well as well, but they’re dangerous all over the place. Our pitchers are going to have to give us a chance and we’re going to have to exploit some things that we see in film and execute. That’s really what the series is going to be is who can execute the best.”