HAMMOND, La. – The No. 2 seed Southeastern Louisiana University softball team opened up the 2025 Southland Conference Softball Championships Hammond Bracket presented by GeoSurfaces with a 4-3 victory over HCU Thursday afternoon at North Oak Park.
Southeastern (44-13) will advance to play sixth-seeded SFA (27-27), which earned a 7-4 win over Nicholls in Thursday's first game Friday at 4 p.m. HCU (17-32) and Nicholls (29-23) will meet in an elimination game Friday at 1 p.m. Both games will be televised on ESPN+.
Brilee Ford led SLU at the plate with two hits and two RBI.
Hallie Burns (12-5) scattered four hits in 3.2 innings of relief to earn the win, while All-SLC pitcher
Britney Lewinski tossed three shutout innings to earn her fifth save of the season.
HCU took the early lead in the top of the first inning off SLU starter
Macie LaRue. An RBI single by Karlie Barba put the Huskies in front, 1-0.
Southeastern answered right back in the bottom of the first.
Chloe Magee drew a one-out walk, then scored one out later when
Cydnee Schneider ripped a triple into the right centerfield gap. Ford followed with a sharp RBI single up the middle to give the Lady Lions a 2-1 lead.
SLU added to its tally in the bottom of the third inning.
Maria Detillier doubled off the left field fence, then scored on an RBI single by Ford to put Southeastern up, 3-1.
The Huskies answered in the top of the fourth inning. Hanna York hit a towering solo home run over the left field fence to cut the lead to 3-2. Ella Herrewig followed with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Chloe Foster to tie the score at 3-3.
Southeastern retook the lead for good in the bottom of the first inning.
Shenita Tucker drew a one-out walk, stole second, moved to third on an HCU error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Magee to give SLU a 4-3 advantage.
Lewinski made the lead stand, pitching out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth. She sat down the Huskies in order in the seventh, closing out the victory with a strikeout of York.
2025 Southland Conference Softball Championships Hammond Bracket Presented by GeoSurfaces | May 1-4 | North Oak Park
Thursday, May 1
Game 1 – No. 6 SFA 7, No. 3 Nicholls 4
Game 2 – No. 2 Southeastern 4, No. 7 HCU 3
Friday, May 2
Game 3 – Nicholls vs. HCU, 1 p.m. (Elimination game)
Game 4 – SFA vs. Southeastern, 4 p.m.
Saturday, May 3
Game 5 – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser, 1 p.m. (Elimination game)
Game 6 – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner, 4 p.m.
Sunday, May 4
Game 7 – Game 6 Winner vs. Game 6 Loser. 1 p.m.*
* - Game 7 is only necessary if Game 5 winner also wins Game 6
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Softball, follow @LionUpSoftball on X and Instagram, like /SLUathletics on Facebook.
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.
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit
www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern offers mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics has a clear bag policy for all ticketed events. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit
www.LionSports.net/clear.
