LAKE CHARLES – Senior pitcher Micaela Bouvier valiantly rebounded Wednesday in what turned out to be her final career start, but the Northwestern State offense couldn't solve Southeastern's

Lacey Hill as the No. 7 seed Lady Demons fell 6-0 to the No. 4 seed Lady Lions.

NSU (28-25) went 1-2 in the Southland Conference Tournament, beating No. 6 seed Abilene Christian in the single-elimination round 4-3 before dropping a 12-5 decision to No. 3 seed McNeese.

After Southeastern scored six runs in the first three innings, Bouvier settled in to finish her career with four scoreless innings.

Bouvier retired 11 of SLU's final 13 batters in the last four innings, working around an error and a single.

The senior finished her season 14-11 after allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits with four strikeouts. Bouvier went 1-1 in the SLC Tournament to complete her career record at 43-29, which ranks in the top 10 in wins and career winning percentage all-time at NSU.

"I really tried to go out there and lay it all out there for my team," said Bouvier, who's overcome multiple injuries throughout her career and a restructured shoulder as a senior. "Whatever was thrown my way, I pushed through and played for this team.

"These girls will continue to put in the work, and things will go their way as they get more experience in the tournament. I've had some things thrown my way and it didn't always go the way I wanted, but it was about coming back and helping this team. I knew I wanted that ball in my hand."

Bouvier held the door open for an offense known for scoring in chunks, but Southeastern's Hill held NSU to just three four runners.

"We loved the seniors we had this year in Bouvier and Sidney Salmans, and they left it all out there and did everything they could," said NSU coach Donald Pickett. "I wish we could have finished better than that, but I didn't feel we came out aggressively and ready to play early in this game. We were a step slow."

Southeastern scored one in the first inning on a Rebecca Skains sacrifice fly. Skains hit a fly ball to NSU's Kaitlyn St. Clair, who twisted her foot in the outfield turf, falling down to allow the runner the score. St. Clair didn't return to the game.

The Lady Lions put more pressure on NSU with a three-run second inning. After an Ella Manzer solo home run put SLU up 2-0, the Lady Lions hung two more runs on the board with RBI singles from Maddie Edmonston (2-for-4) and Kinsey Nicholls.

SLU scored a run after a hit-by-pitch and error followed by a Manzer RBI single.

The Lady Lions' aggressiveness factored into NSU's three errors, three stolen bases and a few extra bases taken on batted balls.

NSU catcher Emma Hawthorne reached base in the third inning after getting plunked, but she was stranded at third base.

The Lady Demons' best chance to score a chunk of runs came in the fourth inning after a Julie Rawls walk and a Madelyn Matt single. But Hill recorded the final two outs to keep NSU scoreless.

NSU's only other base runner came after Hayley Barbazon singled with two outs in the seventh inning.

Southeastern won all four meetings against NSU this season.

The Lady Demons made their second straight SLC Tournament appearance and its fifth in six seasons.

Its 28-25 record is the sixth winning season in the last eight campaigns.

Fellow senior Sidney Salmans, who missed the last three weeks of the season with a broken thumb, finished her career sixth all-time in runs scored with 125 after 25 runs this season.

Salmans, a second-team All-Southland Conference selection in the outfield, is joined by Cayla Jones (first team) and St. Clair (third team) on the all-conference squads.

Bouvier and outfielder Julie Rawls were honorably mentioned.

Jones, who was a finalist for SLC Freshman of the Year, and Rawls tied for the team lead with 10 home runs and 36 RBIs each.

Both were offensive catalysts for a team that led the Southland Conference at 11-4, only to drop nine of its last 12 regular season games and 11 of its last 15 overall.

"We have to mature in how we approach everything. "That's the biggest thing, to be consistent throughout.

"We didn't handle failure the best we could. We do have some young players, but a lot of them had a lot of games under their belt. It's time for us to develop a little bit better and have the right mentality."

NSU started eight freshmen and sophomores regularly to pair with veteran pitchers Bouvier and junior Mikayla Brown.

The sophomores have experienced the past two conference tournaments, winning a game in each event.