THIBODAUX – Freshman Cayla Jones clubbed a home run to give Northwestern State a lead Friday, but Nicholls delivered late offense in a 4-3 Lady Demons' loss.
Trailing 2-0 in the fifth inning, Jones injected life back into NSU (24-17, 11-8 Southland Conference) when she smashed a three-run home run with two outs.
Jones, who missed six games with a concussion and returned earlier this week against LSU, has a team-high nine home runs this season.
But walks, errors and other mistakes helped Nicholls score two runs in the sixth inning and regain the lead for good.
Reliever
Mikayla Brown (9-6) walked the leadoff batter, and an Adele Vincent error on a bunt attempt put two runners in scoring position with no outs.
NSU attempted to turn a double play when Vincent fired a grounder to first baseman Hayley Barbazon, who chunked the ball home to catcher Emma Hawthorne ahead of the runner trying to score.
But Nicholls' Samantha Mracich slid and was called safe, tying the game 3-3, which drew ire from NSU coaches and players alike.
Nicholls' Kasey Frederick plated the go-ahead run on an infield single for a 4-3 edge, one of three infield hits (seven total). Frederick went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
"We have to be sharper," said NSU coach
Donald Pickett. "This was a big game, and we made too many mistakes.
"We had two errors and then too many (infield hits) in which we should have made those plays."
Three of Nicholls' four runs were unearned.
Nicholls pitcher Megan Landry (17-7) held NSU to three runs on five hits, inducing 14 outs in the air and 10 pop ups.
NSU threatened in the seventh inning when Emma Hawthorne led off with a single and moved to second base on an Adele Vincent sacrifice fly.
Adele Vincent collected two hits, including consecutive hits with Hawthorne to set the table for Jones' home run. Hawthorne also had two hits.
Micaela Bouvier started and threw the first four innings, largely working around trouble.
After stranding a pair of runners in the second inning, Frederick singled in Kelsey Miller, who tripled.
???????Bouvier stranded another pair of runners, but Nicholls added a second run in the fourth inning on a Jewel Lara infield single for a 2-0 lead.
???????Bouvier (two runs, one earned) and Brown (two unearned runs in two innings) combined to strand nine runners.
NSU's season-long losing streak stretched to five games, including four in conference play.
The Lady Demons will play the final two games at Nicholls on Saturday starting at noon.
