Box Score BATON ROUGE—It may have taken a few years for McNeese softball to get back to the NCAA Regionals but the Cowgirls made the most of it by picking up their second win in NCAA Tournament history with a 5-2 win over Arizona State Friday afternoon at Tiger Park in the opening round of the double elimination tournament.
 
McNeese advances to the winner's bracket and will play the winner of the LSU/LIU Brooklyn game at noon Saturday. A win at noon Saturday would send McNeese to the championship game on Sunday. A loss will have McNeese playing another game Saturday evening.
 
While Vincent was rolling along in the circle, the Cowgirls were putting pressure on ASU's pitcher from the opening pitch. The Cowgirls scored at least one run in four innings including two in the fifth that gave McNeese its 5-2 lead.
 
McNeese ended the game with nine hits including a 2 for 2-plate appearance from Erika Piancastelli. Piancastelli is now 6 for 6 at the plate going back to the championship game Southland Conference Tournament last weekend where she was 4 for 4 on her way to earning MVP honors.
 
Junior outfielder Marisa Taunton was 2 for 3 with two RBI and scored two of the five Cowgirl runs. Taunton also showed off her fielding skills by coming up with a sliding catch early in the game.
 
The Cowgirls (43-12) got solid pitching from senior Emily Vincent who threw a gem and nearly picked up her second career no-hitter to improve to 17-3 on the year. Vincent gave up her only hit of the game with one out in the seventh to break up the no-no.
 
McNeese had a few chances to break the game open after leaving the bases loaded in the first and fifth innings but managed to come away with only one run in the first and two in the fifth.
 
The Cowgirls started the game by getting the first two batters on base via a Taunton hit by pitch and a walk to Piancastelli. After a sacrifice bunt moved both players up one base, Tori Yanitor loaded the bases off a walk. Hailey Drew was hit by a pitch that scored Taunton for a 1-0 Cowgirl lead.  The Cowgirls weren't able to push any more runs across the plate as Emily Vincent and Taylor Goree struck out to end threat.
 
McNeese added a single run in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead when Piancastelli came close to hitting her 22^nd homerun of the season. With two outs, Piancastelli sent a fly ball to right centerfield that hit the top of the wall but fell back into play allowing Taunton to score from second.
 
Arizona State came back in the third inning to tie the two runs aided by two Cowgirl errors.  The first Arizona State run came when ASU's Ulufa Leilua slid into home from a throw from third baseman Shelbi Strickland knocked Piancastelli's glove off her hand and she was called safe. A sacrifice fly by Sachel Palacios allowed Abby Spiel to score from third to tie the game. 
 
Piancastelli gave the Cowgirls a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning when she smacked her 22^nd homerun of the season over the left field wall. With the homerun, Piancastelli is one shy of tying the Southland Conference single season record of 23 held by UTSA's Jessica Rogers who set the record in 2005.
 
McNeese opened up a 5-2 lead in the fifth off four hits in doing what they have done all year. With two outs, the Cowgirls strung together three straight hits with the first two coming off singles to right field from both Vincent and Shanice Hagler. A single by McClain loaded the bases before a bloop single just past third base scored Vincent and Hagler.
 
Arizona State (30-25) got their only hit from Katee Aguirre who doubled to left center in the seventh.