After reaching the program’s longest winning streak since the 2000 season following a series sweep over UAB last weekend, the Southern Miss softball team (27-16, 11-7 C-USA) has now won 10 games in a row following a midweek home contest against Nicholls State on Tuesday night. The win by Southern Miss also breaks a 10-game winning streak for Nicholls State.
“We had to break their streak to keep ours going,” Southern Miss head coach Wendy Hogue said. “Again, it was kind of like a no-hitter, you just don’t talk about those things before the game, so we just simply talked about what we were going to do to make those adjustments.”
Nicholls State took an early lead over the Golden Eagles and opened up the game with a two-out home run to left field in the top of the first inning.
After both teams played scoreless second and third innings, the Southern Miss bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth inning. Lacey Sumerlin kicked things off with a two-run home run in the inning to put the Golden Eagles ahead of Nicholls State for the first time 2-1. Later in the inning, Sarah Van Schaik hit the team’s second home run, a three-run hit to left center, later on in the inning to give the team a 5-1 advantage.
More runs came across the plate for Southern Miss in the fifth inning. A Madison Rayner triple in the inning scored Chase Nelson and Caroline Casey, extending Southern Miss’ lead to 7-1. Rayner had the only multi-hit game for Southern Miss, going 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI.
Pitcher Abby Trahan, fresh off of two complete-game shutouts against UAB, finished the final two innings of the contest in the circle, recording two strikeouts in the process and sealing the win in the process.
The Golden Eagles used a trio of pitchers in the contest. Bailie Springfield started the contest in the circle and went three innings, recording two strikeouts and allowing two hits. Kaylan Ladner pitched two innings in relief and allowed two hits, a walk and two strikeouts.
Hogue talked about the performance of the trio of pitchers in the contest.
“I thought they did a good job. Springfield you know, that one pitch [home run] and she had a couple of pitches that weren’t working for her and still was able to keep a very hot-hitting Nicholls team to one run,” Hogue said. “I thought pitching did well.”
Up next for Southern Miss is a road contest against McNeese State tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
