BATON ROUGE—McNeese softball tied the school record with its 43^rd win of the season here Saturday night and avoided elimination in the Baton Rouge Regional Tournament with a 6-2 win over Fairfield. The Cowgirls will face LSU at 1:34 Sunday afternoon in another elimination game for the right the face UL-Lafayette in the championship game later on in the day. The game will be streamed on ESPN3 and can be heard on the McNeese Radio Network (KEZM 1310 AM).
 
After the Ragin' Cajuns no-hit the Cowgirls on Friday, McNeese (43-17) bounced back to pick up six hits against Fairfield (26-28) and was led with two apiece from Justyce McClain and Erika Piancastelli. Alexandria Saldivar led McNeese with three RBI on one hit, that being her home run.
 
Senior Rachel Smith improved to 18-7 on the year with the win. Smith tossed 4 1/3 innings and gave up two runs on five hits, struck out two and walked three. Freshman Alexsandra Flores entered the game in the fifth to relieve Smith and gave up two hits in 2 2/3 innings, struck out four and walked one.
 
Fairfield picked up seven hits in the game and was led by Courtney Hankins' three hits while Tori Reed led the Stags with two RBI off her two run home run. Destinee Pallotto took the loss, falling to 13-13 on the year after giving up four runs on four hits, three walks and one strikeout.
 
Fairfield scored first off a two run home run by Tori Reed in the top of the third inning but the Cowgirls came back in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-the lead on a three run home run over the left field fence by Saldivar. The homerun was Saldivar's fourth of the season. After Carleigh Chaumont reached on a fielder's choice, McClain picked up a bloop single over third base before the home run. McNeese added to its lead on an RBI single up the middle by Tori Yanitor for a 4-2 lead.
 
"Justyce was able to get the leadoff hit and we put a couple people on before Saldivar came up with the big knock," said head coach James Landreneau. "For a freshman, she continues to get the bat on the ball and that was a huge momentum shift for us."
 
The Cowgirls extended their lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Chaumont scored on an attempted double steal that got Saldivar out at second base. Piancastelli then hit her 13^th home run of the season over the right centerfield wall for the sixth Cowgirl run of the game.
 
Smith worked through the first two innings where the Stags left two runners stranded in the first and three in the second inning. Smith got Reed to fly out to center and Kristen Ball to ground out to second to leave the runners stranded. In the second inning Gianna Kinhofer drew a one out walk then went to second on a fielder's choice and reached third on a catcher's interference. Smith ended the threat by getting Amanda Ulzheimer to go down swinging to get out inning.
 
Flores got out of two innings where Fairfield left runners stranded in scoring position including the fifth and the second. In the fifth after Smith gave up a leadoff single to Hankins then hit Ball after getting Reed to fly out, Flores got out the Cowgirls out of the inning by getting Molly Roche to go down swinging and Kinhofer to line out to Hailey Drew at short. Flores held two more base runners on the paths in the top of the seventh after striking out Reed for the first out. Flores then gave up a single to Ball but got her out at second on a fielder's choice. After another single by the Stags, Flores got Alisha Marshall to go down swinging for the final out of the game to avoid elimination.
 
"These kids are tough, they are outstanding- I love these kids to death. They compete hard and when people count them out they come back hard and respond. They've been doing this all year. They stick to the process and come out and compete hard," Landreneau said.