Ericka Piancastelli vs. SHSU
Julie Fontenot
5
Sam Houston St. SHSU 7-12
14
Winner McNeese MCN 14-6
Sam Houston St. SHSU
7-12
5
Final
14
McNeese MCN
14-6
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 R H E
Sam Houston St. SHSU 0 0 0 1 4 5 8 2
McNeese MCN 2 3 0 0 9 14 14 1

W: Allred, Jamie (2-3) L: Atkinson, Tayler (1-4)

Game Recap: Softball | | Pam LaFosse

Erika Piancastelli Homers Twice In Win Over Sam Houston State

LAKE CHARLES--  McNeese State's 14-5, five inning Southland Conference softball victory over Sam Houston State looked more like a home run derby than a game, with six balls leaving the park.
 
"We started out with quality at bats," said head coach Joanna Hardin. "Every out was a tough out but we were hitting the ball hard from the get go."
 
Freshman Erika Piancastelli led McNeese's 14 hit attack with a 3 for 4 plate appearance. Piancastelli hit two home runs, giving her four on the year along with five RBI and scored two runs.
 
Eight of the Cowgirls' 14 hits were extra base hits. Taylor Schmidt hit her second home run of the season in the second inning to give McNeese a 5-0 lead. Tori Yanitor's first career home run came in the fifth.
 
The BearKats got their first run of the game off a solo home run by Hillary Adams in the fourth to cut the lead to 5-1.
 
Sam Houston State came back to tie the game at five all in the top of the fifth by scoring four runs on three hits and one Cowgirl error.
 
With one out, the BearKats Jessica Slater reached on a Cowgirl error that allowed her to make it all the way to third. The next batter tripled to right for the second SHSU run. A single by Peyton Webb scored Dani Allen to cut the McNeese lead to 5-3. Adams came up big again with her second home run of the game to knot things up at five apiece.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, McNeese responded with nine runs on six hits and one SHSU error.
 
McNeese put together a string of four hits including back-to-back long balls by Piancastelli and Yanitor that put the Cowgirls up 8-5.  A bases loaded triple by Hailey Drew cleared the bases to give McNeese an 11-5 lead. Drew scored on a wild pitch for a 12-5 McNees lead.
 
The game ended after Emily Vincent was hit by a pitch and Piancastelli blasted her second home run of the game for the 14-5 victory.
 
"Sam came back and we tip our cap to them, they kept fighting but we definitely put an exclamation point on what was already a great offensive day for us," said Hardin.
 
Jamie Allred picked up the complete game victory to improve to 2-3 on the year while Tayler Atkinson took the loss, falling to 1-4 on the season.
 
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