BATON ROUGE—McNeese stayed alive in the NCAA Regional Tournament Saturday afternoon by defeating George Washington 12-0, 6 inning run rule victory in the first elimination game of the day. McNeese's season came to an end late Saturday night with a 4-0 loss to UL-Lafayette.
 
The Cowgirls finish their season with a 35-26 overall record, marking the fourth 30+ win season under fifth year head coach James Landreneau. McNeese was on its way to a fifth 30+ season before COVID ended the 2020 season in which the Cowgirls were 19-7 at the time the season was canceled.
 
What the Cowgirls did in the win over George Washington was hard to come by in the loss to UL-Lafayette. McNeese got timely hits in the win over the Colonials.
 
Against GW, McNeese tied its season high with 14 hits and used small ball to take an 3-0 lead by executing a squeeze to perfection by Aaliyah Ortiz in the second inning that scored Toni Perrin for the first run of the game. Alayis Seneca singled through the left side and later put the Cowgirls up 2-0 when she scored on a sac bunt by Tayler Strother. Ortiz gave McNeese a 3-0 lead when she scored on a throw down to second base in an attempt to get Cori McCrary stealing. 
 
Toni Perrin's double to left centerfield scored Haylee Brinlee to put McNeese up 4-0 then a two out double to left by Chloe Gomez extended the lead to 5-0 in the third inning.
 
McNeese extended its lead to 8-0 in the fourth inning with three runs on three hits including a bases clearing double by Kaylee Lopez that scored Jil Poullard and Tayler Strother. A grounder to second base by Haylee Brinlee scored Lopez for an 8-0 lead.
 
McNeese blew the game open with four runs on four hits in the fifth inning including a two RBI single by Perrin. Jil Poullard and Lopez also collected an RBI in the inning.
 
Lopez and Perrin both ended the game going 4 for 4 with one double and three RBI apiece. Poullard and Seneca had two hits each.
 
Whitney Tate picked up the complete game shutout win to improve to 14-8 overall. Tate allowed only five hits, no walks and struck out one.
 
In the Cowgirls second elimination game, McNeese left seven base runners stranded including four in scoring position in the first three innings against the Cajuns.
 
McNeese picked up six hits in the game with Lopez and Seneca picking up two hits apiece. Lopez ended the day going 6 for 7 at the plate and extended her hitting streak to 18 games while Seneca was 4 for 7 on the day.
 
UL-Lafayette took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a two out, two run home run by Karly Heath. McNeese put the tying runs on base in the bottom of the inning but stranded both on the base paths.
 
The Cajuns added a run in the third inning on a pinch-hit double by Bailey Curry to put the Cajuns up 3-0
 
McNeese missed a chance to get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third when McCrary was stranded on third base after she reached on a base hit, went to second and a throwing error before going to third on a ground out by Lopez.
 
The final Cajun run came on a Cowgirl error in the seventh inning to make it 4-0.
 
Jenna Edwards took the loss to end her Cowgirl career with a 9-3 record. Edwards gave up three runs on five hits with one walk in three innings. Tate came in to pitch the final four innings in relief and allowed one unearned run on one hit, one walk and struck out two batters. Tate ended her day without allowing an earned run in 9.0 innings pitched.
 
"It felt like we had traffic on the bases all night and we just couldn't get the timely hit," said head coach James Landreneau. UL-Lafayette pitched really well and kept our timing off and we couldn't get anything going. In the George Washington game, every time we had runners in scoring position, we were able to come up with quality swings and timely hits. The UL-Lafayette game was the opposite, which was the name of the game really. I thought we pitched out of a couple jams and had a few double plays, but the bottom line is we couldn't get the timely hit today. We had traffic on the bases and had opportunities, and I thought (Whitney) Tate came in and pitched an excellent game for us.
 
"I'm just proud of our team. This team has been through a lot and were resilient and kept fighting to the end. As a coach, sometimes you get so caught up in the wins and losses, but what they've been through personally as 18–to-24-year-olds and the way they've handled it all; from COVID-19, the two storms, an ice storm, a major flood earlier this week, to not having a locker room. I told the team they were fun to coach and I'll always be proud of them for that. We have a goal in our program: when someone meets you, you make their life better. This group right here has made a lot of people's lives better, and I feel for them. They had a ton of want and a ton of desire. They had every opportunity to leave Lake Charles, every reason to give up, and they never did. I signed them up for a gauntlet at the beginning of the season and they fought through it. When I'd show up to work every day, you'd look in their eyes and knew you had a team you could stand with. I'm very proud of them, especially the leadership we had in the group."