HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University softball team celebrated Senior Day with a 6-1 Southland Conference victory over Northwestern State Saturday afternoon at North Oak Park.
SLU (37-14, 14-4 SLC) completed a series sweep of NSU (28-20, 10-8 SLC) to claim the Cypress Trophy for the first time in three tries. The Lady Lions will be the No. 2 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament and will face seventh-seeded Nicholls on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Northwestern State will be the No. 4 seed and face fifth-seeded UIW in the tournament opener Tuesday at noon.
"We played our best softball in this final weekend and we're heading into the conference tournament with some momentum," Southeastern head coach
Rick Fremin commented. "We executed the game plan well in every facet and I'm really pleased where we're at as a team going into the postseason."
Prior to the game, SLU honored three seniors who were playing their final regular season game in a Lady Lion uniform. Fremin was quick to praise the contributions of
Heather Zumo,
Aeriyl Mass and
Madisen Blackford.
"Those three are irreplaceable," Fremin commented. "They've helped lay the foundation and raise the expectations for our program. Beyond what they've contributed on the field, all three will go on to be successful and represent our program and university in a first-class manner."
Zumo (18-4) allowed two hits and struck out four in four innings of work to earn the win in the circle. Mass and
Lexi Johnson led SLU with two hits apiece.
Southeastern jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first inning. Mass led off the game with a triple off the centerfield wall and scored one out later on a sacrifice fly by
Madison Rayner to put SLU up, 1-0, on NSU starter Sage Hoover (10-7).
Northwestern State evened the game up in the top of the second inning. Taylor Williams ripped a two-out triple down the right field line, then scored on an RBI double by Tristin Court to knot the score.
SLU retook the lead for good in the bottom of the second. Blackford drew a leadoff walk and gave way to pinch runner
Cam Goodman. Goodman stole second and scored on an RBI single by
Audrey Greely to put SLU up, 2-1.
Southeastern added to its lead in the bottom of the third. After
Blaire Bizette drew a one-out walk,
Maddie Watson lined a two-run home run just inside the left field foul pole to push the Lady Lion lead to 4-1. Watson's seventh home run of the season extended a stretch of eight straight innings that Southeastern scored a run.
SLU closed out the scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning. RBI singles by Johnson and Mass provided the final 6-1 margin.
Zumo did not allow another hit after the back-to-back extra-base hits in the second.
Alyssa Romano came in and retired all six batters she faced in the fifth and sixth innings, then
Mary-Cathryn (MC) Comeaux closed out the win with a perfect seventh.
The entire 2022 Southland Conference Tournament will be televised on ESPN+. The winner of the tournament earns the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
2022 Southland Conference Softball Tournament | May 10-13 | North Oak Park | Hammond, La.
Tuesday, May 10
Game 1 – No. 4 Northwestern State vs. No. 5 UIW, 12 p.m.
Game 2 – No. 3 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. No. 6 HBU, 2:30 p.m.
Game 3 – No. 2 Southeastern vs. No. 7 Nicholls, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, May 11
Game 4 – No. 1 McNeese vs. Game 1 Winner, 11 a.m.
Game 5 – Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner, 1:30 p.m.
Game 6 – Game 2 Loser vs. Game 3 Loser, 4 p.m.
Game 7 – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 5 Loser, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 12
Game 8 – Game 4 Loser vs. Game 6 Winner, 11 a.m.
Game 9 – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner, 1:30 p.m.
Game 10 – Game 8 Winner vs. Game 7 Winner, 4 p.m.
Game 11 – Game 10 Winner vs. Game 9 Loser, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, May 13
Game 12 – Game 9 Winner vs. Game 11 Winner, 12 p.m.
Game 13 – Necessary if Game 11 Winner wins Game 12, 30 minutes after Game 12
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Softball, follow @LionUpSoftball on Twitter and Instagram, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
HOME RUN CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the softball program are encouraged to join the Home Run Club. Lady Lion softball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.
All membership fees and donations to both the Home Run Club and S Club (softball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern softball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
Southeastern Athletics instituted a clear bag policy for all ticketed events (softball, baseball, football and basketball), effective with the start of the 2018 football season. For more information on the clear bag policy, visit
www.LionSports.net/clear.
