HOUSTON - McNeese softball capped off the first day of the Houston Classic with an impressive 8-3 win over the home team Houston Cougars Friday night.   

The win came after the Cowgirls (6-2) dropped a 15-1, run rule game to No. 1 Oklahoma.   

The Cowgirls will continue tournament action on Saturday with a 10 a.m. game against Texas State (2-2) and a second opportunity to take on five-time national champion Oklahoma (6-0) at 12:30. 

"It was a great team effort," said head coach James Landreneau about the win over Houston. "Our team did a great job of moving on from the earlier game and came out with great effort and focus. The hitters extended innings and scored runs with two outs."  

Houston (4-3) scored the first run of the game off a two out RBI double in the bottom of the first inning.  

The Cowgirls matched Houston in the top of the second inning as Adriana Ramirez fired off her first Cowgirl career home run, a solo shot to tie the game 1-1. The firsts continued as freshman Chrislyne Moreno brought home Toni Perrin with her first Cowgirl RBI raising the score 2-1.   

Houston regained the lead with a two-run home in the bottom of the second but the lead did not last long as Caleigh Cross's RBI tied the game 3-3 in the top of the third.   

McNeese opened things up with two runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth to build an 8-3 lead. Ramirez singled in two runs in the fifth while a run-scoring single by Reyna in the sixth was followed by a 2-run base knock in by Caleigh Cross to give the Cowgirls a five-run lead. 

Winning pitcher Ashley Vallejo (3-1) commanded the circle all seven innings, only giving up three runs on seven hits while striking out one. Cross and Ramirez led the Cowgirls with three RBIs each.