The Nicholls State University softball team won a tightly contested 13-inning game against Lamar University 4-1 on Thursday and split a Good Friday double-header with a 3-2 victory in game one, and a 2-0 loss in game two to win the road conference series 2-1.
The series win improves Nicholls’ overall record to 19-16 and its conference record to 6-3.
Nicholls opened the scoring in Thursday’s game with a sixth-inning Reagan Heflin RBI Triple that drove in infielder Claire Sisco.
Lamar tied the game up in the seventh inning on an RBI single that drove in pinch runner Karyana Mitchell.
Neither team would score in the next five innings until Nicholls newcomer Gabby Higbee’s 13th-inning double drove in a run and saw first baseman Alexa Poche’ score an unearned run to put the Colonels up 3-1. Higbee later scored on an error to cap the scoring at 4-1.
The Tulsa transfer said she wanted to take everything back to the basics when she took the plate late in the game.
“I did not want to make the moment too big and I knew if I could get something through the infield, that’s all the team needed,” Higbee wrote.
She added that it felt encouraging to help the team in such a pivotal moment.
Lamar began game one of Friday’s doubleheader with a first-inning score after a Nicholls error to take its first lead of the series, Nicholls did not respond until Alexa Poche’ hit a solo home run to tie the game.
Nicholls scored a second run in the fifth inning off the bat of Heflin who drove in Sisco with her second RBI triple of the series.
Sisco hit an RBI of her own in the seventh inning, driving in Abby Andersen and giving Nicholls a 3-2 lead.
Lamar responded with a run in the bottom half of the seventh inning, but a batter’s interference call halted the Cardinals’ momentum as they fell 3-2
Heflin’s RBI triples in games one and two were key to Nicholls’ series win.
“With Claire [Sisco] on base I knew I had to get the job done and move her over,” Heflin wrote. “Hitting is contagious and with her getting on base and having the team’s energy behind us, I had to stay calm and get a job done.”
Lamar won the second game of Friday’s doubleheader, scoring both of the game’s runs in the fifth inning.
Nicholls put two runners on base in the seventh inning with no outs, but a force out followed by a base running error ended the game with a 2-0 Lamar victory.
Heflin said the lack of hitting in game three hurt the team but did not underscore the importance of the conference series win.
“It felt good [to win the series] even though we could have gotten a sweep,” Heflin wrote.
Next Up:
The Colonels travel to Hattiesburg, MS to face off against the University of Southern Mississippi on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
