Nicholls softball team to face Corpus Christi-HCU winner to open Southland tourney play

Because of Incarnate Word’s game at Northwestern State last Sunday being canceled because of weather, Nicholls finished a half-game ahead of the Cardinals in the Southland Conference standings.

Nicholls finished 16-8 in the Southland and UIW 15-8. The half-gave difference gave the Lady Colonels the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament instead of being the fourth seed.

As a result, Nicholls, instead of taking on No. 5 seed Lamar as originally expected, will face the winner of the play-in game between No. 6 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 7 seed Houston Christian.

Corpus Christi and HCU meet in the opening game of the Southland tournament at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Nicholls will take on the winner at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The winner of Tuesday night’s game advances to face host Southeastern Louisiana, the No. 2 seed, at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The tournament runs Tuesday through Friday in Hammond.

Nicholls is coming off a three-game series sweep over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Lady Colonels won all three games, two of which were pitchers’ duels. Nicholls won the opening game 2-0 and took the second game 7-1. Nicholls won the finale 1-0. In the two close games, Lady Colonels pitcher Aubrey tossed three-hitters.

“We obviously just swept Corpus, but you know you’re going to have to face Primrose (Aholelei) again. If she throws Game 1, she’ll still probably throw against us later in the day, and she’s still gonna be really good,” Nicholls coach Justin Lewis said. “If it’s HCU, we obviously didn’t hit really well against those arms so, but I also feel like we’re in a much better place offensively than we were when we played them.

“I like the matchups and then you kind of see what happens from there.”

In the 2-0 opening win for Nicholls, Aholelei ended up allowing two runs on three hits, while striking out four in six innings.

Aholelei is 15-10 on the season with a 2.08 earned run average. She has allowed 48 earned runs on 120 hits and 68 walks, with 182 strikeouts in 161 1/3 innings.

If the Lady Colonels do face the Islanders, it would be the fourth meeting between the teams in five days.

“It’s going to be a battle. Primrose is really good and obviously there’s no secrets at that point. It’s just who can execute. We obviously had a good weekend. Hopefully, the message to the team is, ‘hey, don’t sleepwalk just because we won all three games,’ Game 3 was 1-0 and we didn’t hit well off of like their No. 4 pitcher. It’s not going to be a cakewalk. You will be in for a fight,” Lewis said.

The Lady Colonels lost two of three games against HCU during the regular season in Houston. Nicholls was blanked 4-0 in the opening game. After Nicholls won the second game 7-1, it lost the finale 5-1 in 10 innings.

The final game of the series was tied 1-1 heading into extras innings before the Huskies won the game in the 10th on a walk-off grand slam by Haylie Savage off of Nicholls relief pitcher Averi Paden.

“They’ve got two really good arms and they’ve got a couple of hitters that will beat you,” Lewis said. “For the most part, they play pretty good defense.

“We didn’t play well and hopefully then it’s you know, ‘hey, we gotta go get payback’ if it’s them. We all know that as a team we’re playing better offensively than we were, and our pitchers are going to give us the opportunity to win games. We’ve got to go out and execute and focus on what we can control and then I like our chances.”

Had Nicholls finished as the No. 4 seed, it would have taken on Lamar at 3:30 Tuesday. As the No., 3 seed, Nicholls will face the Corpus Christi-HCU winner at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“You hope that there’s an advantage there. We’ll have to see ultimately if they play at 1:00 and then play us again at 6:00, hopefully that matters and that it’s hot and we get an advantage there, but we’ll just have to see,” said Lewis.

Along with taking on a team that had to play earlier the same day, Nicholls also will avoid having to play in midday heat.

“It’s been so gosh-dang hot. Hopefully, you get to play when it’s a little bit cooler, but if you win that game, you play the next day at like 1:00. At some point you’re gonna play in some heat, but I’ll take it the first day for sure, especially with the quick turnaround,” Lewis said.

Winning the tournament, Lewis said, may just come down to which team wants it the most.

“At this time of year, it’s really about the teams that want to go home first, usually do,” the Nicholls coach said. “So it’s really up to them. Do they want to be here, do they want to stay together, do they want to be in that dugout more than they want to be anywhere else in the world? Or are they ready to get their summer on? That’s usually what it comes down to.

“The season’s long. It’s been a grind, but one of the reasons I’m so optimistic, I feel like we’re really in a good spot as far as where the team is and their want-to levels right now. I’m excited to see how it translates into their performance.”