LAKE CHARLES, La. – In another pitchers dual where the score was decided by just one run, the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi softball team came up short 1-0 against Nicholls in an elimination game Thursday night to conclude its run in the SLC Tournament.
The Islanders (24-24) played behind the stellar pitching of SLC Pitcher of the Year
Primrose Aholelei who threw her third complete game in as many days. She kept the No. 3 Colonels (29-23) scoreless through five innings and struck out six in her efforts before Nicholls managed to plate the deciding run in the sixth.
Aholelei pitched 19.1 innings with over 350 pitches thrown throughout the week, including her career-high 146 pitches against McNeese. She only gave up six runs while striking out a total of 27 batters through the three games. With 26 complete games thrown on the year, Aholelei is already eighth in the program's career record book.
Both pitchers kept the game deadlocked, with only a few managing to register a hit in the first five innings. For the Islanders, junior
Kimane Rogron notched an infield base hit in the fourth before junior
Juliana J. Garcia singled up the middle to reach base in the fifth.
Nicholls got at least one base runner in each of the first four innings, including two in the fourth without any outs. After Aholelei caught the first out looking, junior
Sidney Campion tested her arm in right field after catching the fly ball and sending it home to senior
Gabriella Torres who tagged the runner out at the plate for the double play.
Both junior
Sydney Hoyt and sophomore
Monee Montilla hit lead-off doubles in the sixth and seventh innings in hopes of finally getting on the board, but Nicholls escaped both times as the Islanders left 10 runners on base in the loss.
Despite the loss, A&M-Corpus Christi walked away with the program's first win in an opening SLC Tournament game after defeating Lamar 3-2 to continue through the winners bracket. All three games were decided by just one run.
Under the leadership of second year coach
Kathleen Rodriguez, the Islanders have made back-to-back conference tournament appearances and tournament game wins. Before last season, the Islanders had not appeared in the SLC Tournament since 2015 and had not win in the postseason since 2012.
This year, Rodriguez led A&M-Corpus Christi to its first winning season since 2011 after finishing the regular season with a 23-22 overall record. It is the second year in a row that the program posted 20+ win seasons.
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Islanders Softball) and follow the program on Twitter (
@IslandersSball) and Instagram (
islanderssball).
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