In order to guarantee a berth in the Southland Conference softball tournament, the Colonels softball team needs to win at least two games this weekend against McNeese State.The Colonels are 20-29 overall on the season and 10-14 in conference, and with only the top six teams making the tournament, the Colonels are tied with Sam Houston State for the last spot. There is still a slim chance that the team can make the tournament with one win, but Northwestern State would have to sweep its series with Sam Houston over the weekend.
Head Coach Jenny Parsons has seen improvement in her team since the beginning of the season and said the defense has stepped up in key moments to give her players the chance to win.
“We’re not making the same errors we made in the beginning of the season,” Parsons said. “We’re not putting runners on base, so we’re not giving the other team chances to score.”
The pitching has been there for the Colonels as well as a 4.44 earned run average over the course of the season. Sophomore Ally May has a 3.21 ERA in 17 appearances and a 5-6 record, while sophomore Krystalin Ensminger has a record of 6-7 and a 3.94 ERA in 26 appearances.
“Our pitchers have been resilient all year and have battled back from a lot all season,” Parsons said. “As of late, the pitching has become stronger with not walking batters, getting more strike-outs and putting the ball in the play of our defense.”
The first conference series for the Colonels against Louisiana-Monroe was good for the team, taking the series 2-1 and outscoring the Lady Indians 20-15 over the weekend. In the last game alone, five Colonels batters had multi-hit games.
After that opening conference series, Nicholls lost the next two series against Texas-Arlington and Sam Houston State and only won one game being outscored 30-15 over those two series.
The Colonels won the next three conference series against Northwestern, Southeastern and Stephen F. Austin. In the two wins against Northwestern, Nicholls defeated the Lady Demons 7-6 in extra innings, then 11-1 in five innings a day later. Much was the same for the series wins against Southeastern and SFA with scores of 5-4, 8-0, 7-1 and 14-8.
Still, Nicholls would not be able to continue the conference winning streak getting swept by conference leading Texas-San Antonio at home by the scores 5-6, 1-8 and 0-10, and only winning one game against second place Texas State on the road. Those losses dropped the Colonels from fourth in the conference to the sixth place spot fighting for a playoff spot.
Although the Colonels control their destiny regarding the tournament, Parsons is aware of how important this upcoming series is to the team.
“This whole season, our season, boils down to one weekend,” she said. “The reason you play the regular season is to get to the post season, and I would be disappointed for our seniors if we didn’t make the tournament this year.”
If Nicholls does make the tournament, the Colonels show signs of a team that is hard to stop offensively. In conference, the team has a .281 batting average, which puts them second behind Texas-San Antonio with .312.
Individually, Nicholls has two players who are ranked in the nation in hitting categories. Junior third baseman Leah Peterson is ranked in the top ten in the nation in doubles, while sophomore shortstop Kat Harrell is ranked among the toughest batters to strike out in the country. “We have girls that are just having phenomenal seasons,” Parsons said. “I knew we had the ability to bat well, but this is amazing.”
Parsons said that if her team gets in the tournament, she won’t change the way she handles her players before games.
“We’re going to take it one pitch at a time, one bat at a time, without thinking about what’s going to happen next,” she said. “We know what we have to do to win, and hopefully we can do what it takes to get a title.
