COLLEGE STATION, Texas- McNeese softball opened NCAA Tournament action at the College Station Regional Friday with an 8-0 (5 inning.) loss to No. 19
th ranked Arizona State Sun Devils, sending the Cowgirl to the elimination game on Saturday.
No. 3 seed McNeese will face No. 4 seed UConn (31-27), who loss 17-3 (5 innings) to Texas A&M Friday in the opening game of the tournament. The Cowgirls and Huskies will take the field at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in an elimination game. The Cowgirls/Huskies winner will face the loser of the 2 p.m. game against Texas A&M and Arizona State at 7 p.m. Saturday night.
McNeese (40-21) started the game off by picking up three straight hits from
Kassidy Chance,
Maddie Weeks, and
Corine Poncho. On Poncho's single to right field, both Chance and Weeks got caught in a rundown and Weeks was thrown out at third and Chance at home for the double play.
Jada Muñoz then grounded out for the third out.
Arizona State (42-16) scored eight runs on 11 hits including five homeruns to account for their offense. The Sun Devils jumped on Cowgirl starter
Maddie Taylor in the bottom half of the first inning by taking a 2-0 lead on back-to-back homeruns.
After two scoreless innings, the Sun Devils scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth for a 5-0 lead. Tiare Ho-Ching's two run homer extended the lead to 4-0 and a RBI single by Emily Schepp brought home another run.
Another three-run fifth that included a solo homerun by Ashleigh Mejia and Ching's second homerun of the game put the score at 7-0. The game winning run came from a RBI single by Samantha Swan that scored Kaylee Pond to end the game.
McNeese picked up five hits in the game, all singles from Chance, Weeks, Poncho, Muñoz, and Taylor.
Taylor (3.0) innings took the loss to fall to 17-5 on the season. The Cowgirls used two other pitchers in the game,
Kadence Williams (1.0 innings), and
Kynlei Chapman (0.2 innings)
SCORING
B1- Arizona State took a 2-0 lead on back-to-back homeruns by Kaylee Pond and Samantha Swan (ASU 2, McN 0)
B4- Ho-Ching two-run homerun to left field and a RBI single to left by Emily Schepp scored Tanya Windle (ASU 5, McN 0)
B5- Two more homeruns by the Sun Devils and a walk-off singe by Swan scored Windle to end the game. A leadoff solo homerun by Ashleigh Mejia and a solo homer by Ching, her second of the game extended the lead to 7-0. (ASU 8, McN 0)
FRIDAY'S RESULTS
Game1: Texas A&M 17, UConn 3 (5 innings)
Game 2: Arizona State 8, McNeese 0 (5 innings)
SATURDAY'S SCHEDULE
Game 3: 2 p.m.- Texas A&M vs. Arizona State
Game 4: 4:30 p.m.- McNeese vs. UConn
Game 5: 7 p.m.- Winner G4 vs. Loser G3
