Timely hitting, defensive gems spark Nicholls softball team to series win over Southeastern

Timely hitting that has been missing for most of the season for the Nicholls softball team showed up in the fifth inning of the Lady Colonels’ 7-5 home win Saturday over Southeastern Louisiana.

After SLU scored two runs in the top of the third inning, Nicholls exploded for five runs in the bottom half of the inning.

Samantha Gwiazda opened the inning with a single past second base. Claire Sisco ended up with an infield hit when Gwiazda beat a throw to second base on a force play.

After M.C. Comeaux was brought in to pitch in place of Allison Brunson, Reagan Heflin reached base safely on a fielder’s choice to load the bases. A sacrifice fly by Erin Krause made the score 2-1.

Alexa Poche followed with a run-scoring single to left field to tie the game.

A walk issued to Abby Andersen loaded the bases and Brunson returned as the pitcher for SLU.

Following a sacrifice fly by Rylie Rutherford to give Nicholls a 3-2 lead, center fielder Gabby Higbee capped the inning with a double to left center field to extend the lead to 5-2.

“Just keeping things simple at the plate,” Higbee said of her double. “Just see the ball, hit the ball, for me. I have been working through some things and things are finally falling into place.”

“We hadn’t been getting the timely hit. That was the most timely hit of them all,” Nicholls coach Justin Lewis said of Higbee’s hit. “She’s been working, working, working and that’s where her power is. She put that swing on it and I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Responding quickly after falling behind is another trait that had been missing for Nicholls in recent games.

“That’s what we talk about all the time. You’ve got to respond. We haven’t done a lot of that this year. To drop a five spot on them we just enormous,” said Lewis.

Just as important to the win for Nicholls as the timely hitting was the effort of the defense.

Southeastern Louisiana narrowed the gap to 5-3 going into the fifth inning.

Ka’Lyn Watson opened the inning with a deep fly ball to left field. Helfin, the Nicholls left fielder, raced back, and crashed into the wall while making the catch, robbing Watson of a home run.

“I knew that we needed to hold them after scoring our runs. I know us as outfielders, we always say, ‘no fly zone,’ and we want everything to be caught. I knew in that moment I had to work for Audrey and just catch the ball no matter what happened,” said Heflin.

Did she actually reach over the fence to haul in the ball?

“I honestly have no idea,” she laughed.

After the first out, a Magee single, followed by Detillier reaching base on a fielder’s choice, put two runners aboard.

Johnson hit a shot to left center that seemed destined for extra bases. Heflin ranged far to her left to make a diving catch for another defensive gem.

“I saw the ball in the gap, and I knew Gabby was going to be there backing me up, so I said that I might as well go all out, and it went in our favor,” said Heflin.

Nicholls added a run in the sixth on a Higbee sacrifice fly and another in the sixth on a run-scoring single by Heflin to extend the Nicholls lead to 7-3 going to the seventh inning.

The Lady Colonels faced a few anxious moments in the seventh.

With one out, Molly Yoo, who entered the game in relief of starter Audrey McNeill in the sixth inning, hit Watson with a pitch. Following a ground out, back-to-back singles produced a run to make it 7-4.

A fielding error by Sisco at second base allowed another run to score to make it 7-5.

The final defensive gem of the game came by Rutherford, the Nicholls first baseman.

Bailey Krolczky hit a grounder to the right of Rutherford. Rutherford dove for the ball and then crawled her way back to first, touching the bag with her glove to barely beat Krolczky to the base to end the game.

Rylie is a bull in the china shop. Anything she does is very aggressive. That’s why we like her over there. She’s a catcher as well, so she doesn’t get to work over there. She will make some mistakes from time to time, but it’s because of a lack of experience and time over there. Then she will do that for you,” Lewis said.

Nicholls improved to 12-6 in the Southland and 25-21 overall. SLU dropped to 14-4 in the conference and 37-10 overall.

McNeill (11-11) picked up the win to reach .500 on the season. She allowed three runs, two of which were earned, on five hits and one walk, while striking out two in five innings.

Yoo picked up her first save of the year, allowing two runs, one of which was earned, on two hits in two innings.

The timely hitting and defensive gems all seemed part of a quest by the Lady Colonels to gain a win for the Nicholls pitchers, who have labored with a lack of run support during times in the season.

“After we got out of the initial conference wins, we care for our pitchers. It’s Audrey’s last season and we told her we will get the winning record for her. This is all we’re really focused on now,” said Higbee.

“The pitching is what allowed us to do this,” Lewis said of winning the series over SLU. “They have been pitching their butts off and giving us chance to win and we had never, since I’ve been here, won a series from Southeastern. They gave us that opportunity and I couldn’t be more happy with them.”

Comeaux (3-3) suffered the loss. She allowed three runs on one hit and one walk in one-third of an inning.