The Cowgirls are making walk-off wins a habit.

Top-seeded McNeese was pushed to the brink for the second time in the Lake Charles bracket, winning only with one final swing.

Nyjah Fontenot’s sharp single up the middle scored pinch-runner Rylee Eyster from second with two out in the bottom of the seventh Saturday to give McNeese a 4-3 victory over Incarnate Word.

The win was the Cowgirls’ third straight walk-off win in postseason play at Joe Miller Ballpark, dating back to the championship game of 2022. 

Fontenot’s winner came after the Cardinals rallied from three runs down to tie the game at 3-3. 

“That was a really good softball game,” said McNeese head coach James Landreneau. “We bounced back from them tying it and regained the momentum. It’s a big win.”

The victory sends the top-seeded Cowgirls (39-18) into the title game on Sunday at 1 p.m. They will face No. 4 UIW (29-20) again.

UIW returned to the play McNeese with a 10-2 five-inning win over No. 5 Lamar in Saturday’s late game. McNeese will have to win once on Sunday to host the best-of-3 championship series against No. 2 seed Southeastern starting Thursday.

An Arkansas transfer, Fontenot ensured McNeese stayed in the winner’s bracket.

“I had an idea of what I wanted to do,” said Fontenot. “I didn’t want to overdo it, so I just put a good swing on it.”

The rally started with a one-out pinch-hit single from Gwinn Hall. Eyster ran for Hall, and one out later was on second, after Kassidy Chance singled to leave, setting up Fontenot.

“Nyjah was able to come up with that big hit for us,” said Landreneau. “We just keep working and trying to make something happen.”

Senior Reese Reyna had another big tournament game. The shortstop went 3-for-3 and scored two runs. She has four straight hits in this tournament.

“Just playing one pitch at a time,” said Reyna. “We trust everybody in our lineup. You have to do it when you get your shot.”

Rylie Bouvier drove in a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly and double as McNeese took a 3-0 lead after four innings. But a two-run homer by Prisias Quintero, her first of the season, cut the McNeese lead to 3-2 in the sixth. 

In the seventh, the Cardinals tied the game with a run without a hit, scoring on a groundout to second to tie the game.

McNeese freshman Maddie Taylor started, was replaced for two-thirds of an inning by Ryann Schexnayder, and returned to get the win and improve to 17-7. The Pitcher of the Year finished her 6⅓ innings of work, allowing just one run on five hits, striking out five and walking three.

The victory was McNeese’s 44th straight over the last three years at home against Southland opponents and 16th in their last 17 games overall. 

“I thought Maddie pitched a really good game,” said Landreneau. “When I took her out, we told her to stay in the game, we might bring her back. That’s not always easy, but she did it.”

The game was originally scheduled for Friday night; however, the heavy rains washed things back to Saturday and into Sunday.