LAKE CHARLES-- After six years since its last NCAA Tournament, the McNeese softball team will make its fourth overall postseason tournament appearance when the No. 2 seed Cowgirls face No. 3 seed Arizona State at 3 p.m. Friday in the first game of the Baton Rouge Region at Tiger Park. The three-day double elimination tournament runs through Sunday.
Also participating in the region will be host and the No. 10 overall seed LSU (45-15) and No. 4 seed LIU Brooklyn (30-25). LSU and LIU Brooklyn will play the 6 p.m. game Friday. All regional games can be seen on ESPN3.
The winners of Friday's games will play in the first of three games scheduled for Saturday while Friday's losers will play the winner of Saturday's second game in an elimination game Saturday evening.
The championship game is set for 1 p.m. Sunday and an, "if necessary" game is set for 4 p.m.
The winner of this weekend's regional will advance to the NCAA Super Regional against the winner of the Harrisonburg Regional the following weekend with an ultimate goal of reaching the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.
McNeese (42-12) earned the Southland Conference's automatic bid by winning the Southland Conference Tournament in Lake Charles last weekend. This will be the second straight trip to Baton Rouge for an NCAA Tournament. In 2010, the Cowgirls were sent to Tiger Park where they lost 6-0 to LSU before being eliminated by Texas A&M in a 2-0 loss.
The Cowgirls are 1-6 overall in regional action and will be looking to pick up its first NCAA Tournament win since defeating Centenary 5-2 in the 2005 regional tournament in College Station, Texas.
All-American
Erika Piancastelli, who was recently named to the South All-Region first team, will lead the Cowgirls into the tournament ranking second in the nation in slugging percent and homeruns. She leads the team with a .420 batting average, 21 homeruns, 14 doubles, 64 runs scored and 62 walks.
The Cowgirls have plenty of hitting power behind Piancastelli in the lineup as junior outfielder
Marisa Taunton, another All-Region selection leads the Cowgirls with 60 hits and 22 stolen bases and is second on the team with a .355 average.
Designated player
Morgan Catron has been on a hitting tear the last couple of weeks, is batting .331 with 43 hits including six homeruns and nine double. Second baseman
Hailey Drew has a .325 average and is second on the team with a .478 slugging percent and 21 steals. Freshman outfielder
Justyce McClain is batting .340 with 35 hits and 21 RBI.
The Cowgirls' solid pitching staff is led by seniors
Emily Vincent and
Jamie Allred who have done most of the pitching for the Cowgirls this season.
Vincent was named to the third team all-Region team and leads McNeese with a 1.60 ERA in 148.2 innings and has 147 strikeouts. She enters the tournament with a 16-3 record and has won her last four starts and 11 of her last 12.
Allred, who became McNeese's career wins leader last weekend with her win over Lamar in semifinals of the SLC Tournament, has a 17-3 record with a 1.71 ERA in 126.2 innings. The Hallsville, Texas native has 108 strikeouts to her credit. Like Vincent, Allred has been on a roll in the circle recently, having won her last five games and seven of her last nine.
The Sun Devils hold a 3-1 all-time record over the Cowgirls but the Cowgirls won the last meeting between the two teams 3-1 in 2012 at the Arizona State Kajikawa Classic. ASU is making its 28
th NCAA appearance and second straight postseason appearance in Baton Rouge. ASU fell to LSU in extra innings last year in the "if necessary" game. ASU has won two NCAA championships with the last coming in 2011 and have appeared in seven World Series.
