CONWAY, Ark—It took an extra inning but McNeese softball concluded the regular season with a 13-10, eight inning win over Central Arkansas Sunday to complete the Southland Conference series sweep and extended their winning streak to 10 games.
McNeese (36-18, 21-5 SLC), earned the no. 2 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament (May6-8) in Natchitoches yesterday with its doubleheader win yesterday, will find out who and when they will play when the pairings are released by the conference office later this afternoon.
Emily Vincent led McNeese at the plate and picked up the win in relief. Vincent picked led McNeese with three hits including a double and a triple, three RBI and scored two runs. She improved to 14-5 on the year with the win. Vincent faced 10 batters and gave up two hits, two runs and struck out two in two innings of relief.
The Cowgirls continued their aggressive play from Saturday and jumped on UCA early in the game by tacking on four runs in the first inning on three hits.
Emily Vincent's double to left scored
Erika Piancastelli,
Morgan Catron two RBI home run added two more and
Lauren Langner scored on an error four a 4-0 lead.
UCA got on the board with a run in the bottom of the inning on a RBI double by Hannah Stirton.
McNeese got the run back in the second inning when Vincent tripled to right and came home when UCA catcher threw down to second to get Langner stealing.
The Sugar Bears cut the Cowgirl lead in half (6-3) with two more runs in the bottom of the second. An RBI single and a sacrifice fly allowed two runs to score.
After three scoreless innings, McNeese increased its lead to 7-3 on a sacrifice fly by
Hailey Drew that scored
Marisa Taunton.
UCA wouldn't go away as they came back to score five runs on five hits in the bottom of the sixth to take an 8-7 lead.
The Cowgirls' offense came through in the top of the seventh to tie the game. After Vincent and Catron flew out for the first two outs, Langner who is having a career weekend drew a walk then stole second. A single to second by
Taylor Schmidt brought Langner home to tie the game at eight apiece. McNeese had a chance to add more runs but pinch hitter
Rachel Smith struck out with runners on second and third.
Vincent took over the pitching duties in the seventh and after giving up a lead off walk, got the next two UCA batters to fly out before striking out Jessie Taylor to send the game into extra innings.
In the top of the eighth, the Cowgirls' offense once again came through. McNeese began the inning with five straight hits including an RBI by Piancastelli that gave McNeese a 9-8 lead. A single by Catron extended the lead to 10-8. McNeese scored three more runs on two wild pitches and a ground out by Langner to extend the lead to 13-8.
UCA came back in the bottom of the eighth to score two runs off a two out pinch hit double by Amy Gunnells to cut the lead to 13-10. Vincent struck out Sam Forrest to end the game.
