HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University softball team scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally for a 4-2 nonconference victory over in-state foe ULM Wednesday night at North Oak Park.
Consecutive wo-out RBI by
Maddie Watson,
Audrey Greely and
Maddie Leal helped SLU (23-7) to the win. The visiting Warhawks fell to 18-12 overall with the loss.
Greely and
Bailey Krolczyk led SLU at the plate with two hits apiece. Lady Lion pitchers
Cera Blanchard and
KK Ladner (7-1) combined to hold ULM to three hits. Ladner earned the victory, striking out seven in 2.2 innings of shutout relief.
"This was a good in-state win against a quality opponent," Southeastern head coach
Rick Fremin said. "Our two pitchers held ULM to three hits with no walks and we'll take that every time out. Our hitters did a nice job adjusting their approach and coming up with big hits when we needed them. We needed to get back on track heading into a challenging Southland Conference series this weekend."
SLU took the lead in the bottom of the second inning. Krolczyk ripped a one-out double into left centerfield and scored one batter later on a ULM error to give the Lady Lions the early 1-0 lead.
Blanchard sat down the first 13 Warhawks she faced until ULM got to her in the top of the fifth inning. Madison Blount broke up the perfect game bid with a single down the left field line, then Campbell Selman doubled off the centerfield fence to knot the score and chase Blanchard from the game. A perfectly executed squeeze bunt scored Selman and gave the Warhawks a 2-1 advantage.
Madison Rayner drew a leadoff walk versus Gianni Hulett (7-3) to open the sixth, but the ULM ace retired the next two Lady Lion batters. Watson then ripped a single to right field to plate pinch runner
Britt Bourgoyne to tie the score.
Greely followed and sliced a double into the left centerfield gap to score Watson all the way from first with the go-ahead run. Leal followed by grinding out an eight-pitch at-bat and doubling to nearly the exact same spot as Greely to give SLU a 4-2 lead.
Ladner had no problem closing out the victory. The Kiln, Mississippi native struck out the side in the seventh, as she finished the game with seven consecutive strikeouts over the final 2.1 innings.
Wednesday's win was the first of four straight games at home for Southeastern. The Lady Lions will welcome Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for a three-game Southland Conference series at North Oak Park.
The series opens with a Friday 4 p.m. doubleheader and fans cans enjoy Friday Fireworks at North Oak Park. Saturday's noon series finale will feature Bingo at the Ballpark and kids can run the bases following the game. The series will be televised on ESPN+ and live stats will be available at
www.LionSports.net/sidearmstats/softball.
HOME RUN CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the softball program are encouraged to join the Home Run Club. Lady Lion softball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.
All membership fees and donations to both the Home Run Club and S Club (softball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern softball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics instituted a clear bag policy for all ticketed events (softball, baseball, football and basketball), effective with the start of the 2018 football season. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit
www.LionSports.net/clear.
