HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana softball team closed out its six-game home stand with a 16-1 loss to No. 24 Mississippi State Tuesday evening at North Oak Park.
The Lady Lions (10-16) had their three-game winning streak snapped. MSU, which made its debut in the top 25 on Tuesday, improved to 21-6 overall.
Freshman third baseman
Sydney Booker hit her team-high seventh double for SLU, while freshman outfielder
Kinsey Nichols and senior second baseman
Vanessa Eng each also had hits. Senior first baseman
Teresa Lemos drove in the Lady Lions' lone run, while junior
Taylor Bishop struck out three in 2.1 innings of shutout relief.
MSU jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning against senior
Tori Stamper (2-3). Bulldog sophomore third baseman Caroline Seitz led off the game with a home run to set the tone for a first inning that saw nine batters come to the plate.
Southeastern cut into the lead in the bottom of the first inning. A single by Nichols, a double by Booker and a walk to junior designated player
Amber Sather loaded the bases with one out. Lemos then lifted a fly ball deep enough to right to score Nichols. However, SLU could manage just a Eng single and a Nichols walk the rest of the way against MSU freshman pitchers Holly Ward (5-1) and Cassady Knudsen.
Any hope of a SLU comeback were dashed in the top of the second inning. The Bulldogs sent 13 batters to the plate in a seven-run frame to take a 12-1 lead. Bishop got SLU out of the inning and pitched scoreless third and fourth innings, but MSU was able to close the scoring with four runs in the top of the fifth inning.
SLU will now travel to Nacogdoches, Texas for a Southland Conference series at Stephen F. Austin. The series opens with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and closes with a 12 p.m. contest on Saturday.
