McNeese Softball Walks-It-Off in SLC Quarterfinals

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - After weather delayed the game from the original start time of 11:00 AM, McNeese softball finally took on Texas A&M - Corpus Christi on Wednesday afternoon around 2:30 in the Southland Conference Tournament Quarterfinals.

The first couple of innings were slow offensively as McNeese’s Whitney Tate and Corpus Christi’s Primrose Aholelei put on a show in the circle, but in the fourth inning, it was Texas A&M - Corpus Christi who finally broke through.

Sydney Hoyt hit a dribbler to shortstop, but a Reese Reyna throwing error allowed Alexandria Torres to score from second base as the Islanders took a 1-0 lead.

However, in the fifth inning, Reyna put that all behind her as she smashed a home run off the scoreboard in left field to tie the game up at one-a-piece, and that’s where the game would stay until the bottom of the seventh inning when Kaylee Lopez hit a double off the wall in left-center field bringing in Alayis Seneca as the Cowgirls walked it off to advance to the Quarterfinals.

“Kaylee Lopez in the pinch-hitting spot, I’d make the case that she might be the best pinch hitter in the country, she’s phenomenal, and she has ice water in her veins,” said head coach James Landreneau on Lopez’s walk-off.

On the rain delay coach Landreneau said “I thought our kids stayed composed the whole time and obviously Whitney was able to stay loose, and that’s where it really helps, is having a senior like Whitney (Tate) bring that calmness, and let’s not forget, after a long rain delay, she came in and threw strike one right off the bat, and that’s where I think it’s really important, our team really settles down with Whitney.”

McNeese is set to play the winner of the Northwestern State, Southeastern game in the Semi-Finals on Thursday at 1:30, barring a possible weather delay.

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