LAKE CHARLES—With three weekends remaining in the regular season, the league leading McNeese softball team will look to remain atop the league standings when it host Southeastern Louisiana in a three game home series this weekend.
The series will begin with a single game at 6 p.m. Friday and will conclude with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday. Friday's game is faculty appreciation and Gold Out. McNeese faculty will be admitted free. The first 100 fans will receive a gold t-shirt courtesy of Tarver Ford and Lake Charles Toyota. Saturday's game is Law Enforcement Day and Sheriff Tony Mancuso and former Cowgirl Lauren Langer will throw out the first pitch.
McNeese (30-10, 15-3 SLC) recorded its second 30-win season under second year head coach
Joanna Hardin after picking up a doubleheader win at Northwestern State last Saturday. The Cowgirls dropped the opening game of the series to the Lady Demons 9-8 in eight innings before coming back to outscore NW State 25-5 in both wins Saturday. The Cowgirls are one game ahead of second place Lamar (27-15, 14-4 SLC) in the standings and one and a half games ahead of third place Nicholls (30-14, 13-4 SLC).
As a team, the Cowgirls lead the conference with a .313 average, 252 runs scored, 214 RBI, and 53 hit by pitches. The Cowgirl pitching staff has struck out a league best 220 batters and has the second best ERA (2.19) behind Nicholls (2.01). McNeese is holding its opponents to a .228 batting average and have allowed a league low 100 runs to score.
The game will pit the league's top two hitters in McNeese's All-American
Erika Piancastelli and Southeastern La.'s Katie Lacour. Piancastelli is coming off a weekend that saw her break the school single season homerun record, leads the nation with 19. The sophomore enters the weekend with 37 career home runs and is two shy of breaking the career mark of 38 set by Heather Moreaux. Piancastelli also broke the McNeese and Southland Conference single season walks record of 47 set by Alanna DiVittorio in 2014. Piancastelli was walked a total of 13 times by NW State including 10 consecutive walks which ties a NCAA record set held by Megan Hill of Southern Miss in 2009. She is also closing in on the NCAA record for consecutive plate appearances, reaching base. Piancastelli has reached base safely in her last 15 plate appearances, the record is held by Florida State's Maddie O'Brien, who reached base safely in 18 straight plate appearances during the 2014 season.
Hitting .430 on the season, Piancastelli also leads the SLC in home runs (19), walks (50), slugging percent (1.100), on base percent (.626), and runs scored (47).
The Cowgirls have a supporting cast that surrounds Piancastelli on offense. Five other Cowgirls are currently batting .300 or above. Junior
Marisa Taunton leads McNeese with 49 hits and is second on the team with a .386 average. Taunton also leads the Cowgirls with 20 stolen bases.
Hailey Drew, who recently returned to the lineup is batting .365 with 31 hits and 24 RBI. Also batting over .300 is
Emily Vincent (.317),
Morgan Catron (.315), and
Tori Yanitor (.308).
Most of Vincent's damage has been done in the circle where she and
Jamie Allred both boast an 11-2 record. Vincent has the second best ERA (1.63) and second most strikeouts (110) in the league.
Allred picked up her 62
nd career win against NW State over the weekend and is six victories away from becoming McNeese's career leader. Allred enters the weekend with a 1.69 ERA in 91 innings.
Southeastern La. (22-24, 5-13 SLC), winners of their last three games with a doubleheader win over Alcorn on Tuesday and a 10-1 win over Southern on Wednesday, come into the series with the league's top hitter in Katie Lacour. Lacour leads the SLC with a .432 average and has a team best 64 hits, five triples and 42 runs.
Taylor Bishop has handled most of the pitching for the Lady Lions who is 12-13 on the year with a 2.93 ERA in 160 innings. Freshman Caitlyn VanHemelryck has a 4-5 record with a 3.45 ERA in 50.2 innings.
McNeese will host the Southland Conference Tournament May 11-13 at Cowgirl Diamond. Tournament tickets are currently on sale and can be purchase in person at the Jack Doland Fieldhouse (M-F, 8:30 a.m.- 5 p.m.) or online at mcneesetickets.com.
Tournament ticket prices are $21 for an adult all-tournament pass, $11 for youth (ages 5-17) all-tournament pass. Single day tickets are $11 for adults and $6 for youth. Children under 5 will be admitted free. Southland Conference students will also be admitted free with a university ID.
