For the seventh time in the 23 years, the Lady Colonels softball team will participate in the Southland Conference tournament this weekend at the Lady Demon Softball Complex at Northwestern State University.
The Lady Colonels have not made it to the tournament since 1998, when former head coach Patti Holthaus led the team to a 43-16 record. In their history, the Lady Colonels have five Southland Conference tournament titles.
Under the leadership of head coach Phyllis Guedry, the fifth seeded Lady Colonels (26-25, 13-14 SLC) will take on the second seeded Southwest Texas (43-23, 21-5 SLC) at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The Southland Conference tournament follows the double elimination format.
Last week, Southwest Texas shut out the Lady Colonels at home in all three contests. Southwest Texas won the first game 5-0, the second game 1-0 and the third game 8-0.
Although Southwest Texas practically humbled the Lady Colonels, Guedry still remains optimistic about the teams chances.
“Our first two games we played against them, we played some really good ball. We just came up a couple of hits short. We did do a good job of putting the bat on the ball and I think it is benefiting us now because they realized they could play with them. I think that will make a huge difference for us,” Guedry said.
As of press time Tuesday, Guedry said the starting rotation had not yet been decided. The Lady Colonel pitching core is ranked third in the Southland Conference with a 1.87 average ERA, 137 runs and 287 hits allowed on the season.
Guedry said she expects both junior pitcher Dionne Meier (15-9 overall with 1.92 ERA) and sophomore Nichole Wagner (5-14 overall with 2.04 ERA) to have big games this weekend.
“We are still talking about who will start, and I feel confident with either one of them on the mound. Dionne (Meier) and Nichole (Wagner) each did pretty well against them. We are going to reevaluate some of our charts, and make a decision soon.”
Lady Colonel freshman Lindsay Coleman leads the team with a .291 batting average, seven home runs and 41 hits. Freshman Lindsay Yelverton is second with a .270 batting average , three home runs, 10 doubles, and five RBI’s.
Southwest Texas is led by pitcher Nicole Neuerburg, who was 31-6 on the season with a 1.32 ERA. Kristin Zateski leads the Southland Conference in batting with a .406 batting average, five home runs and 73 hits on the season.
Guedry said since the beginning of the year, the Lady Colonels have worked hard to make it to the tournament.
“We came in at the beginning of this year, and our intention was to get into the tournament. At the beginning of the year, we just set that goal. We are now going to the tournament with the intention of taking it all,” Guedry said.
During March, the Lady Colonels lost 11 consecutive contests and stood at 9-16. The Lady Colonels record since is 16-9 to close out the season and is one of the hottest teams in the Southland Conference.
“They started to believe that they could win. When we made that turnaround, I really believe that the new people we added were going to match well with the people we have here already,” Guedry said.
“In the first part of the season, we started doing a lot of things right but things just were not falling our way.
Guedry said the Buzz Classic in Atlanta, Georgia was the turning point for the team. They beat Georgia State and Princeton, and finished the tournament with a 2-2 record.
“We were playing some really tough competition when we were there. At that time, things just started falling into place for us,” Guedry said.
According to Guedry, the team is buzzing with excitement and will try to use that as a tool this weekend.
“I think we can use the excitement that we have as a program right now for our advantage. We have a lot of excitement, and our whole program is super ready for the tournament. It is our first time being there,” Guedry said.
“I think we are going to go in there and feel like we are going to take the roof off of the dugout.”
After two seasons with the Lady Colonels, junior catcher Sarah Eads is excited with the opportunity to play for the conference title.
“I always knew we could get here if we worked hard enough,” Eads said.
Guedry said the experience the team will be receiving this weekend will help jumpstart the softball program back into the elite roundup of teams in the Southland Conference for years to come.
“I have huge expectations for us here. I think by us getting into the tournament is going to help us build, and hopefully have a program like Nicholls used to have,” Guedry said.