Box Score HAMMOND – In its regular-season finale, Northwestern State softball played its longest game of the season, dropping a 5-4 heartbreaker to Southeastern Louisiana in 13 innings on a two-run double from Sloan Jenkins over the head of left fielder Natalie Landry.

NSU (33-16, 23-3 Southland) twice took the lead in extras against Southeastern (21-28, 15-10 SLC) including a 4-3 lead in the top of the 13^th thanks to a Landry sacrifice fly to plate Cassandra Barefield.

The Lady Demons also took a 3-2 lead in the 12^th on a Kellye Kincannon sacrifice fly to plate Kaytie Proctor; however, in the bottom half, Sydney Booker singled home Sloan Jenkins, who started the inning on second due to the international tiebreaker rule, which begins in the 10^th inning.

"We've got to be able to slow the game down and make adjustments," seventh-year head coach Doanld Pickett said. "Hopefully we can get in there the next couple days and work on our swings and approaches at the plate."

Lady Demons starter Micaela Bouvier tossed 12 1-3 innings, allowing 12 hits and three earned runs while striking out five and walking two. Lady Lions (21-28, 15-10 SLC) starter Taylor Bishop also went the distance, allowing 11 hits and two earned runs while walking five and striking out four.

"I thought Bouvier threw a pretty good game today," Pickett said. "Hopefully our players will be ready to go Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I just think we need to do a better job making the adjustments at the plate and hopefully we can get our confidence back going into the tournament."

Northwestern State concludes the regular season after securing its second-highest league winning percentage in program history at .880, falling just shy of the 1998 mark of 23-3 (.884).

The loss was NSU's first in conference play since March 28, when the Lady Demons fell 4-3 at Lamar. The loss also ended NSU's six-game win streak.

After wrapping up the program's No. 1 seed and first regular-season league championship since 2000 on Friday, NSU now turns its sights toward next week's Southland Conference Tournament, which will be held Wednesday through Friday at the Lady Demon Diamond.

With the top seed, NSU receives a bye in the opening round and will face the winner of the No. 4 seed and No. 5 seed in Game 3 at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

"You put yourself in a good situation and also playing at home," Pickett said of having a first-round bye. "Hopefully we'll be more relaxed and confident at home. We'll have a lot of fan support and families there. We've got to figure out who we're going to play and see how we match up."

Landry opened the scoring in the fourth, launching a two-run home run over the fence in right center to put NSU ahead 2-0. The blast plated Brittney Jones, who recorded a one-out double.

The Lady Lions answered with a pair in their half of the fifth. Southeastern put runners on by way of a throwing error, runner's interference and walk before Mychal Truxillo singled up the middle to tie the game.

With three hits in the finale, sophomore Kellye Kincannon finished the series 8-for-12 with three RBIs while Cassandra Barefield went 6-for-13 with four RBIs.