With a little help from some new friends, the Cowgirls took a giant step toward their third straight Southland Conference regular season title Saturday afternoon.

Sweeping Houston Christian was a big part of that, but so was Nicholls’ surprise victory over second-place Southeastern.

In the span of 24 hours, the Cowgirls went from a half-game up on the Lions in the race for the title to three games ahead with six remaining.

“I’m gonna worry about playing clean,” said McNeese State head coach James Landreneau. “I worry about playing a clean game, getting outs, and getting runners in.”

The Cowgirls did enough of that Saturday, winning Game 1 6-3 and then outlasting the Huskies 5-4 in nine innings in the rain in Game 2.

Their twin victories gave McNeese 10 straight wins overall and 16 in a row in league play. The Cowgirls have won 18 of 20 and improved to 33-15 and 18-1 in the SLC. 

HCU fell to 17-24, 4-14.

“We train for playing in these moments,” said Landreneau. “We trained to play in the rain.”

The winning run scored when Reese Reyna was hit on a 3-0 pitch with one out and the bases loaded. McNeese scored the winning run with the only hit being a leadoff infield single by freshman Alexis Dibbley. 

Two walks and a sacrifice bunt later and Reyna was up in the winning situation for the victory.

Dibbley had a huge day. She hit a two-run homer in the first in the opener, putting McNeese up 2-1 early. It was her fifth of the season. 

She finished the game 3-for-3 with three runs batted in. 

As if that was not enough, Dibbley improved to 4-1 as a pitcher by starting and going four innings. She did allow three runs, two earned, on three hits but it was enough. 

Ryann Schexnayder followed with two innings of one-hit work and Shaelyn Sanders picked up her second save of the season with a perfect seventh.

In the second game, she had two more hits. For the weekend Dibbley finished 7-for-10 to raise her batting average to team-high .368.

Sanders was just as impressive. She entered the game with two runners on and the Cowgirls down 4-3 in the third inning of the second game. 

She got out of that jam and finished going 6⅔ innings, allowing just three hits and striking out eight to earn the win and improve to 16-7.

“It feels good to go in and back up my people,” said Sanders. “My mindset is to come in and get outs no matter if I start or am in relief.”

Sanders, a senior right-hander who has become the Cowgirl ace, finished the weekend 2-0 with a save, going 14⅔  innings of shutout ball. She struck out 15 and allowed just eight hits and walked only one.

“Every time we get backed into a corner we come back punching,” said Landreneau. “When we get punched I feel we always respond.”
McNeese will be back home Wednesday night against rival Louisiana-Lafayette before heading to Corpus Christy, Texas next weekend for three more Southland games.