LAKE CHARLES—McNeese softball had an uncharacteristic night on defense here Wednesday in its 10-4 loss to Southern Miss, who extended its winning streak to 11 games.
McNeese (23-23) committed four errors in the game that led to eight of the 10 runs being unearned. The costliest error came in the fifth inning when the Cowgirls get the first two batters out then an error began an avalanche of hitting by Southern Miss (28-16) that led to a five-run inning that broke a 3-3 tie that gave the Eagles an 8-3 lead.
"We came out early an put up three runs against a good Southern Miss pitcher, then we got a little stale after that," said head coach
James Landreneau. "Defensively, we didn't show up to play defense. You give that kind of offense four errors and a couple of walks, they are going to make you pay and that's what they did," Landreneau said.
The Cowgirls took the early lead by scoring three runs in the first inning. McNeese opened the game with back-to-back singles by
Justyce McClain and
Cori McCrary. The Cowgirls loaded the bases after
Demi Boudreaux was hit by a pitch. Back-to-back singles by
Kaylee Lopez and
Alayis Seneca along with a throwing error allowed three runs to score.
Southern Miss cut the lead to 3-2 in the third when Samantha Papp and Destini Brown both score on two different Cowgirl errors.
The Eagles tied the game at three apiece with an RBI single by Brown before taking the 8-3 lead in the fifth with five runs.
The Cowgirls did get one run back in the bottom of the fifth off a Seneca RBI single to cut the lead in half.
Southern Miss' potent offense kept coming back and in the seventh when they added two more runs off a two RBI homerun with two outs by Brown for the only earned runs of the game for the Eagles.
"We have to be able to get off the field with two outs. We got to do a better job of taking care of the softball and be able to play a complete game," Landreneau said.
McNeese used four pitchers in the game (
Ashley Koncir,
Saleen Flores,
Alexsandra Flores and
Amber Coons. Alexsandra took the loss to fall to 9-9 on the year. She gave up five runs on three hits in 1 1/3 innings.
The Cowgirls managed nine hits in the contest and was led by McClain's 3 for 4 performance. Seneca had two hits and four other Cowgirls had one hit apiece.
McNeese will return to the Southland Conference schedule this weekend to host league leading Nicholls. The series will begin with a single game Friday (6 p.m.) and will conclude with a noon doubleheader Saturday.
