LAKE CHARLES---  McNeese softball opened its Southland Conference series against Nicholls with an 8-5 win Friday to extend its winning streak to five games.  The series will end with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday.
 
McNeese (19-13, 5-2 SLC) picked up four extra base hits including Brylie Fontenot's first career home run in the fifth inning. 
 
Kassidy Chance, Jada Muñoz, Fontenot and Onna McElroy led McNeese with two hits apiece.  Both Fontenot's hits were extra base hits.  She also had a double in the second inning.  Fontenot ended the game with three of the eight McNeese RBI's. Muñoz and McElroy also had one extra base hit.
 
McNeese took as 3-0 lead in the second inning off four hits and one Nicholls (10-18, 3-4 SLC) error.  Rylie Bouvier got things going with a walk, went to third on a single by Reese Reyna and scored the first McNeese run on a Nicholls error.  Later in the inning, Fontenot's RBI Reyna from second for the 2-0 lead.  Fontenot would come around to score on a RBI sacrifice bunt by Delaney Dunham to extend the Cowgirl lead to 3-0.
 
Nicholls got on the board in the fourth inning with a single run off a sacrifice fly by Lilianna Robledo that scored Molly VandenBout.
 
 A Dunham infield single scored McElroy in the Cowgirls' bottom half of the fourth for a 4-1 lead.
 
The Colonels got within one run (4-3) in the fifth inning following a two-run home run by Erin Krause, but McNeese got those two runs back plus one on a Bouvier single down the right field line and Fontenot's first career homerun to extend the lead to 7-3.
 
Muñoz's two out double to right center in the sixth inning scored Samantha Mundine from first for the final McNeese run of the game and an 8-3 lead.
 
Nicholls added two more runs in the seventh inning before Ryann Schexnayder got Riley Rutherford to pop out to second base to end the game.
 
Schexnayder picked up her fifth save of the season while Kadence Williams improved to 5-4 with the win.