Nicholls softball team closes out regular season with home series against Islanders

Nicholls closes out the regular season at home with a three-game Southland Conference series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The series begins with a double-header starting at 4 p.m. Friday. The final game is slated for noon Saturday.

Nicholls goes into the series 13-8 in the Southland and 26-24 overall. The Islanders are 9-12 in the conference and 21-18 overall.

McNeese State goes into the final week of the regular season 19-2 in the SLC. Southeastern Louisiana is second at 17-4. Incarnate Word is third at 14-7.

At 13-8, the best Nicholls can finish in the SLC is third place heading into the conference tournament.

“It looks like we’re pretty much going to end up in the four spot and the focus of this weekend is we gotta win,” Nicholls coach Justin Lewis said. “You can’t get enough winning. It’s what you do.

“We’re trying to win the series. We’re trying to win every game and ultimately so that you go into the conference tournament playing as well as you can.”

The top seven teams advance to the conference tournament. The six and seven seeds participate in a play-in game, while the top two seeds have opening-round byes. As the likely four seed, Nicholls in all likelihood will face Lamar, the probable fifth seed. The winner of that that advances to take on the top seed.

Nicholls is coming off a series at Incarnate Word in which the Lady Colonels needed a dramatic 4-2 win in nine innings in the series finale to avoid a sweep.

Reagan Heflin and Alexa Poche had run-scoring doubles in the top of the ninth inning to give Nicholls the win.

Audrey McNeill pitched all ninth innings to earn the win. She allowed two runs on four hits and six walks, while striking out five.

“It’s disappointing that we lost the series,” Lewis said. “The first game really didn’t go our way, but the second game, we really should have won that game. We were up 3-0 in the sixth and gave up two runs in the sixth and two runs in the seventh to lose it.

“That just can’t happen. If we win that game, then we win the series, but it was good that the girls didn’t roll over and die on Saturday. It was UIW’s Senior Day and there’s always emotion that you have to overcome.”

There were some positive signs for Nicholls in the series, Lewis said, despite the team losing two of three games.

“One of the best parts of the series is there’s a couple of kids that are starting to get hot with the bats that we really have been waiting on all year, that’s Alexa Poche and Rylie Rutherford,” the Nicholls coach said. “Both had good weekends, and obviously, Reagan Heflin still had another good weekend. If we can get those two because they provide a lot of power to the team, going into the conference tournament, it’s perfect timing to get those two hot.”

Corpus Christi heads into the game having dropped two of three games in its most recent SLC series against McNeese.

All three games were low-scoring affairs. Corpus Christi lost the first game 1-0 in eight innings, won the second game 2-1, and dropped the finale 3-1.

In the opener, the teams battled through a scoreless affair into extra innings when McNeese won the game in the top of the eighth inning. With two outs, a double by Mariana Torres set up Rylee Eyster’s run-scoring single to give the Cowgirls the win.

The Islanders broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fourth inning on a run-scoring single by Mimi Thornton for their 2-1 win in the second game.

In the final game of the series, the Islanders gave up two runs in the top of the sixth inning in the 3-1 loss

Monee Montilla is one of only two Islanders hitting over .300. She leads the team with a .330 average. She has two home runs and 10 runs batted in on the season.

Taniece Tyson is the other batter hitting over .300. She is hitting .315 with a team-high six home runs, while driving in 20.

The Islanders have hit a total of 11 home runs as a team.

Kimane Rogron leads Corpus Christi with 22 runs batted in. Alina Jasso topped the team in stolen bases with 10 in 11 attempts.

Primrose Aholelei (15-9) is the definition of a workhorse pitcher. She has thrown a total of 155 1/3 innings while sporting a 2.07 earned run average. She has allowed 46 runs on 117 hits and 68 walks, with 178 strikeouts.

“She’s their pitching staff,” said Lewis. “The other kid (Ariella Saenz) is a sophomore, a young kid that has a drop ball and she’s talented, too. You can’t sleep on either one of them. But yeah, Primrose is kind of a throwback. She wants the ball. She wants to compete. She she’ll stare you down. She’ll talk mess. It’s fun. It’s fun.”

Saenz is a distant second behind Aholelei in innings pitched at 45 2/3 innings. Most of her action has come in a relief role.

Saenz pitched the opening game of the series. In the 1-0 loss, she allowed one run on five hits, while striking out two in eight innings.

Aholelei gained the win in the second game, allowing one run on six hits and two walks, while striking out six in going the distance.

She suffered the loss in the finale, allowing three runs, only one of which was earned, on seven hits and one walk, with six strikeouts in six innings.

The three-game series will allow the Nicholls seniors to close their collegiate careers at home.

“We’ve got six seniors who who’ve done a ton for this program. You want to send them off on a positive note,” Lewis said. “We’ll have the big Senior Day on Saturday. They’ve just meant so much to me and the program since I have been here these three years.

“They’ve worked their butts off to get us where we’re at and kind of changed the direction of the program. It will be nice to celebrate them, and hopefully, celebrating some wins as well.”