LAKE CHARLES - The first place McNeese Cowgirls kept its lead in the Southland Conference softball standings when one day after dropping its first league game of the season, the squad got a stellar performance in the circle by Emily Vincent who stifled the Abilene Christian bats in a 5-1 win on Saturday to capture the weekend series.

Vincent (9-2) struck out 11 in the game, the second-most K's of the season for the senior hurler, as the Cowgirls improve to 26-7 on the season and 11-1 in league play.

Meanwhile at the plate, the Cowgirls had to pick up the slack for the lack of bat chances for all-American catcher Erika Piancastelli who was walked in three of her four plate appearances. She was walked a total of 10 times in the three-game series.

But the Cowgirls played Piancastelli's base-on-balls to perfection as she scored on two of those free passes while follow-up hitter Marisa Taunton laid down nicely placed bunt attempts, two of which she outran the putout attempt at first and the same two moving runners around the bags with an errant throw.

ACU (13-17, 7-5 SLC) took the lead with one out in the first inning on Peyton Hedrick's solo home run that bounded off the top of the right-centerfield wall.

The Cowgirls grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the frame led by Piancastelli's lead-off walk that turned into a 1-1 tie when she scored on the second error on the same play that saw Taunton reach on a bunt single then advance to second on a throwing error by catcher Cara Hoover to move her to second. Meanwhile the throw from the outfield into the cutoff player was off the mark and rolled to the ACU dugout, allowing Piancastelli to score from third and tying the game at 1-1 as Taunton moved over to third.

Tori Yanitor followed with a walk and Taunton scored on a passed ball to put the Cowgirls up 2-1.

Vincent then settled in nicely and allowed just three more hits the next six innings while fanning nine in that span.

McNeese, who has garnered votes in the most recent NFCA Top 25 poll, went up 3-1 in the second inning when Megan Trahan led off with a single and eventually scored on a 1-out sacrifice fly by Tori Yanitor.

After a scoreless third, Piancastelli's lead-off walk in the fourth preceded another Taunton single and a second throwing error by Hoover enabled Piancastelli to advance to third. Morgan Catron followed with a single to score Piancastelli to make it 4-1 then Taunton crossed the plate on Yanitor's second sac fly of the game to put the score at 5-1 through four innings.

Taunton led the Cowgirls at the plate with two hits in four plate appearances while Yanitor knocked in three runs in the game.

The Cowgirls will return to action on Wednesday when they visit the University of Houston at 6 p.m. before returning home next Friday at 6 to begin a big conference series with Nicholls in a battle of the top two teams in the conference standings.