Cowgirls advance to first regional final in program history with win over Notre Dame

Evanston, IL (KPLC) - McNeese Softball in an elimination game defeats Notre Dame 3-1 to advance to the first regional final in program history. The Cowgirls will face host Northwestern again at 3:00 P.M.

Scoreless heading into the Top of the fifth, Notre Dame was able to get runners on first and second base. Abby Sweet hit a deep fly ball to left-center and it was caught by Toni Perrin. Perrin then threw the ball into Josie Willingham who then fired to Reese Reyna who tagged a runner out at second for a second out then fired over to Crislyne Moreno at first to complete the triple play.

🚨 TRIPLE PLAY ALERT 🚨 #SCtop10 @McNeeseSoftball pic.twitter.com/kGEt18XcCD
— espnW (@espnW) May 22, 2022

Immediately following the triple play, Adriana Ramirez hits a solo home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth to give McNeese a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, with Toni Perrin on third, Kendall Talley would hit a chopper to short which caused one of five Irish errors in the game. Perrin would come in to score giving the Cowgirls a 2-0 lead.

McNeese would strike a third time in the sixth inning. Erin Ardoin on second for Adriana Ramirez is going to steal third and a throwing error allows Ardoin to come home to make it 3-0.

Notre Dame would not strike until the seventh inning. With no one on for Joley Mitchell, she would hit a towering fly ball on top of the arena in left field but it would be controversially called foul. Two pitchers later Mitchell would hit a no-doubter to left field to make it 3-1.

The home run would be the only major mistake for Ashley Vallejo who would go the full seven allowing only the one run on five hits with one walk, one hit batter and three strikeouts.

Adriana Ramirez led the offense going 2-for-3 with the home run. Reese Reyna and Toni Perrin would also go 2-for-3.

The Cowgirls will face host Northwestern for the second time on Sunday at 3:00 P.M. With a win they will play a second game immediately following the first. McNeese must beat Northwestern twice to be able to advance to the Super Regionals.