The Cowgirls celebrated their historic fourth straight conference title with a victory lap Sunday in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Scoring six times in the first two innings, McNeese ended the Southland Conference’s regular season with an 11-2 five-inning run-rule victory over Stephen F. Austin. 

The win was McNeese’s 14th straight in the league as the Cowgirls prepare to host one of the SLC’s postseason pods starting Thursday. The Cowgirls will play eighth-seeded East Texas A&M.

Also in the Lake Charles pod are Lamar and Incarnate Word. Southeastern will host the other pod, with the winners meeting at the highest remaining seed’s home the following weekend for a best-of-three championship series.

McNeese improved to 37-18, 23-4 with Sunday’s win. SFA finished 27-26, 14-13 and as the sixth seed.

The Lady Lumberjacks will open in the Hammond pod against No. 3 Nicholls. SELA will face seventh-seeded Houston Christian in its opener.

After scoring two runs in the first on a double from Nyjah Fontenot and Samantha Mundine’s triple, the Cowgirls then chased SFA starter Reagan Hall with four more runs in the second. One run scored on a bases-loaded walk while two more came in on wild pitches.

Fontenot finished 3-for-4, scoring two runs. Kassidy Chance scored three times for McNeese.

Jada Munoz drove in the final run with a single, giving her seven runs batted in during the three-game series. Munoz was replaced after her hit, finishing the weekend 4-for-8 to go with her RBIs.

Hall, a freshman right-hander, lasted just 1⅓ innings, allowing six runs, all of them earned. Her record fell to 7-7 with the loss.

The Lady Jacks got to McNeese starter Emma Banks with a pair of runs in the third to cut the lead to 6-2. Kyi’Marri Ester drove in both runs with a single.

Ester’s hit was the end to Banks’ afternoon. She went 2⅔ innings, her longest outing of the season. 

The Cowgirls got those two runs back in the fourth with Sarah Allen’s RBI double being the big hit. McNeese scored three more times in the fifth before getting the Lady Jacks out to end the game early.

SLC Seeding

At Lake Charles

No. 1 McNeese vs. No. 8 East Texas A&M

No. 4 UIW vs. No. 5 Lamar

At Hammond

No. 2 Southeastern vs. No. 7 Houston Christian

No. 3 Nicholls vs. No. 6 SFA