HAMMOND – It was death by a thousand bunts for Northwestern State in Wednesday's winner's bracket game.
After the Lady Demons (29-21) saw four different one-run leads slip away throughout the game, McNeese placed three straight bunt singles down in the bottom of the eighth setting the stage for the walk-off single to right, breaking the hearts of the Lady Demons in a 6-5 loss to the rival Cowgirls (36-19).
"We just couldn't slam the door shut," head coach
Donald Pickett said. "That's why they're the defending champs. They don't quit playing and they came back and tied the game on us three or four times. We answered back every time and went right back ahead so I was really proud of the girls for doing that. We just couldn't shut the door."
The Lady Demons forced McNeese into the need for the late heroics with some clutch hitting of their own in each of the final two innings.
After seeing the Cowgirls tie the game in the bottom of the sixth,
Makenzie Chaffin drove a ball to straight away center for her fifth home run of the season, and after completing the fastest trip around the bases of the season, put the Lady Demons back on top 4-3.
The Cowgirls answered, for the third time, to even the game in the bottom of the inning to force the game to extra innings.
A walk and the second ball to hit the line in the outfield fair for the opponent in two days, but the tying and winning runs in scoring position for the Cowgirls in the seventh. Starting pitcher
Sage Hoover was able to force extras after allowing just one run to score on a base hit by getting a swing and miss strikeout and fly ball to left.
A similar exchange happened in the top of the eighth for NSU.
With the bags full of Demons and one out,
Bailie Ragsdale lifted one just over the head of the shortstop to bring in
Kat Marshall, who started the inning with one of her three hits in the game including a two-out double that gave NSU the 3-2 lead in the fifth.
"I'm proud of how they fought," Pickett said "Sometimes you can fight hard and you don't win and that's the way it goes. If we can come back out, bounce back and continue to play the way we played with that fight we can make a run at this thing. We've got to answer in the right way tomorrow and go from there one pitch at a time."
NSU was unable to add to their lead after the go-ahead hit, something that plagued them the entire game.
The Lady Demons scored just one run in the first three innings of the game leaving six batters on base after six hits against the Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year Ashley Vallejo and two errors by the McNeese defense.
The Lady Demons had 13 hits in the game, the second most this season, with several other productive at bats and hard-hit balls directly to defenders sprinkled throughout the afternoon.
Laney Roos and
Kat Marshall three hits and an RBI, both of which gave the Lady Demons the lead, in the game and Chaffin and
Taylor Williams each added a pair of hits to the total.
"It doesn't seem like much has gone our way but the kids keep playing and keep fighting," Pickett said. "We scored five runs today. We scored five in the winner's bracket of the conference tournament – we've got to win that game. We had productive at bats, got bunts down, moved runners into scoring position. If we can get that type of offense the rest of the week, we're going to be a tough out."
NSU falls into an elimination game on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. and will face the winner of the first elimination game between No. 3 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 7 Nicholls.
