LAKE CHARLES—The McNeese softball team will once again be on the road this weekend when the Cowgirls will head to Alabama to take part in the Troy Classic Friday through Sunday. All tournament games will be streamed and live stats will also be available. All links can be found on mcneesesports.com.
McNeese (2-2) will open up tournament play against former Cowgirl head coach Mike Smith and his Ole Miss Rebels (4-1) at 9:30 a.m. and Eastern Illinois (3-2) at Noon on Friday. Saturday's schedule has the Cowgirls playing Eastern Illinois for the second time in the tournament at 1 p.m. before taking on host Troy (4-1) at 5 p.m. McNeese will conclude tournament play with a 9:30 a.m. contest against Tennessee Tech (3-2).
Ole Miss won the Hawaii Oceanic Time Warner Cable Paradise Classic title last weekend with two wins over St. Mary's and Hawaii and a win over the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Eastern Illinois is coming off an appearance at the Iowa State Cyclone Invitational. Troy is coming off its own Trojan Invitational last weekend and Tennessee Tech is coming off a season opening weekend at the Mississippi State Bulldog Classic.
The Cowgirls are coming off an opening weekend that saw the Cowgirls open the season with a 4-0 shutout win over UL-Monroe where senior starter
Jamie Allred came close to throwing a perfect game. The Cowgirls then headed to preseason #16 Baylor where they almost came away with a sweep. The Cowgirls dropped the opening game 5-4 on a walk-off home before Julie Trahan picked up her first win of the season with a 3-1 win in game two. Both teams battled back and forth in the rubber game of the series before Baylor won the game 6-5.
Erika Piancastelli leads the Cowgirls with a .500 batting average, six hits, two doubles, one home run, and four runs scored.
Rachel Smith is batting .333 with one hit in three at bats.
Taylor Schmidt is batting .308 and is one of three players tied for a team high with three RBI.
Tori Yanitor and
Justyce McClain also have three RBI on the season.
Trahan leads the pitching staff with a 1-0 record with a 0.00 ERA.
Emily Vincent has appeared in two games and has a 3.15 ERA.
Jamie Allred is 1-1 on the season with a 3.75 ERA, one shutout. Allred leads the staff with 10 strikeouts. Smith is o-1 on the season with a 4.20 ERA.
Natalie Martinez leads Ole Miss with a .500 batting average and seven RBI. Hailey Lunderman leads the Rebels with eight hits and has a .444 batting average Miranda Strother and Alex Schneider are both batting .400 and have six hits apiece.
Alyssa Clayton is 1-0 on the season and has a team low 2.84 ERA. Madi Osias is 2-1 with a 3.29 ERA and has a team high 15 strikeouts.
