McNeese rolls to wins

LAKE CHARLES- McNeese softball completed its Southland Conference series sweep over Sam Houston State on Saturday with a 7-2, 3-0 doubleheader victory to open Southland Conference action.
Ericka Piancastelli continued where she left off on Friday by going 4 for 5 with two more homeruns runs Saturday along with four RBI.
Hailey Drew was 3 for 4 in the first game and Emily Vincent went 3 for 3 and picked up the game one win to improve to 7-1 on the year. Rachel Smith was winner in game two, improving to 6-2 on the season.
In the opening game, McNeese took an early 3-0 lead after two innings on the first of two Piancastelli home runs of the day. A RBI double by Dakota Matiko scored Brianna Castro for the third McNeese run.
Sam Houston State cut the Cowgirl lead to 3-2 by scoring two runs in the fifth but McNeese came back to score three runs in the bottom of the inning on four hits. A two run homer by Vincent and a RBI single by Lauren Langner pushed the runs across the plate for a 6-2 lead. A Vincent RBI single up the middle in the sixth scored Matiko for the 7-2 lead.
Vincent through a complete game, giving up four hits, struck out five and walked only one batter.
McNeese didn’t waste any time getting on the scoreboard in the second game with two runs in the first on a Piancastelli two-run homer, her second of the day and fourth of the series.
Marisa Taunton scored the third Cowgirl run in the sixth on a fielder’s choice by Langner for a 3-0 lead.
Smith also picked up the complete game victory, giving up only two hits and struck out eight. Smith gave up a single in the third and then again in the sixth and allowed only one base runner to reach third.
With the doubleheader win, McNeese improves to 16-6 overall and 3-0 in the SLC. The Cowgirls will travel to UTSA on Wednesday, March 11 for a non-conference single game. McNeese will return to conference action with at three game series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi next weekend. A 3 p.m. game is scheduled for Friday with a doubleheader set for noon on Saturday.

LAKE CHARLES-- McNeese State’s 14-5, five inning Southland Conference softball victory over Sam Houston State looked more like a home run derby than a game, with six ball leaving the park.
“We started out with quality at bats,” said head coach Joanna Hardin. “Every out was a tough out but we were hitting the ball hard from the get go.”
Freshman Ericka Piancastelli led McNeese’s 14 hit attack with a 3 for 4 plate appearance. Piancastelli hit two home runs, giving her four on the year along with five RBI and scored two runs.
Eight of the Cowgirls’ 14 hits were extra base hits. Taylor Schmidt hit her second home run of the season in the second inning to give McNeese a 5-0 lead. Tori Yanitor’s first career home run came in the fifth.
The BearKats got their first run of the game off a solo home run by Hillary Adams in the fourth to cut the lead to 5-1.
Sam Houston State came back to tie the game at five all in the top of the fifth by scoring four runs on three hits and one Cowgirl error.
With one out, the BearKats Jessica Slater reached on a Cowgirl error that allowed her to make it all the way to third. The next batter tripled to right for the second SHSU run. A single by Peyton Webb scored Dani Allen to cut the McNeese lead to 5-3. Adams came up big again with her second home run of the game to knot things up at five apiece.
In the bottom half of the inning, McNeese responded with nine runs on six hits and one SHSU error.
McNeese put together a string of four hits including back-to-back long balls by Piancastelli and Yanitor that put the Cowgirls up 8-5. A bases loaded triple by Hailey Drew cleared the bases to give McNeese an 11-5 lead. Drew scored on a wild pitch for a 12-5 McNees lead.
The game ended after Emily Vincent was hit by a pitch and Piancastelli blasted her second home run of the game for the 14-5 victory.
“Sam came back and we tip our cap to them, they kept fighting but we definitely put an exclamation point on what was already a great offensive day for us,” said Hardin.
Jamie Allred picked up the complete game victory to improve to 2-3 on the year while Tayler Atkinson took the loss, falling to 1-4 on the season.