Box Score NATCHITOCHES—Second seed McNeese State dropped its opening game of the 2015 Southland Conference Tournament, 6-2 to third seed Central Arkansas on the opening day of the tournament Wednesday. McNeese will face fourth seed Southeastern La. Thursday in an elimination game.
 
All Cowgirl tournament games can be heard live on Cajun Radio (1470/1290 AM) or cajunradio.com
 
With the loss, McNeese falls to 36-19 on the year while UCA improves to 32-20 overall.
 
" Definitely a tough one today but you have to tip your hat off to UCA for taking advantage of some mistakes that we made early in the game and some free passes that we gave up," said head coach Joanna Hardin. "I'm proud of the girls for fighting all the way to the last inning. We hit some hard balls but they were right to people and UCA hit some balls that fell in. At the end of the day you can't give a quality team free passes, they will always take advantage of that and that has been a bit of our achilles heal all year and we will have to figure out that piece of the puzzle. If any team is capable of coming back and fighting their way through the tournament it is us. We are excited for the challenge and ready to take on Southeastern La. tomorrow afternoon."
 
McNeese starter Rachel Smith got off to a rocky start and didn't last long in the circle after giving up four runs and four walks in the first inning. Reliever Jamie Allred replaced Smith in the second inning and settled down after giving up two more runs to the Sugar Bears. After giving up the two runs, Allred held UCA scoreless for the five innings. Allred ended the game with four strikeouts and allowed five walks. Smith dropped her sixth game of the season to fall to 12-6 on the year.
 
Both teams ended the game with five hits apiece with freshman Bryanna Castro picking up two of the five Cowgirl hits including a solo home run in the third. McNeese had one other extra base hit, coming from a double from freshman Erika Piancastelli.
 
UCA took a 6-0 lead after two complete innings, thanks to a two run home run and a two RBI double in the second inning by Jessie Taylor that scored two more runs for UCA.
 
Castro's home run got the Cowgirls on the scoreboard. McNeese struggled at the plate and had a hard time getting hits off UCA pitcher Kylie Studioso who pitched UCA to a 1-0, 13-inning game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the first game of the tournament earlier in the day. Studioso improved to 25-12 overall with two wins today.
 
McNeese added another run in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead to 6-2 but couldn't bring Castro and Tori Yanitor home with two outs. Castro was stranded on second while Yanitor was on third when Hailey Drew popped up to first t end the game.