Lady Colonels Top Lady Braves on Tuesday

THIBODAUX, La. – The Alcorn State University softball program grabbed an early lead Tuesday, but Nicholls punched back to take a 9-1 decision at Swanner Field.
 
The Lady Braves (1-4) got on the board in the first inning to lead 1-0 on a sacrifice fly by junior Amari Ramsey. The frame started with senior Simone McKinney reaching second on an error. She advanced to third on a grounder by junior Desirea Lindsey and scored on Ramsey's RBI.
 
"We started off the game well. We did a great job of manufacturing a run. Simone got on. Desirea did a great job to get her to third and Amari got us a deep flyball for a sac fly. I think she just missed a two-run homer. It was exactly what we work on," Alcorn head coach Josef Rankin said.
 
Nicholls (1-5) responded with a run in both the first and second innings to take a 2-1 edge. The Lady Colonels broke it open with three runs in the third on just one hit go up 6-1.
 
"The third inning got away from us a little bit. We had some free passes and they were able to put up a crooked number on the scoreboard. Kiri [Parker] is going to be very good for us. She's just hitting that learning curve as a freshman. Brenn [Ursin[ pitched very well. We had all of our pitchers on pre-determined innings and they did well. Alexsis [Ramirez] got the ground balls she needed, but we didn't do a very good of catching and throwing. We will get better," Rankin said.
 
As stated by Rankin, the Lady Braves used three pitchers in the contest. Freshman Kiri Parker tossed the first 2.0 frames, and sophomore Brenn Ursin surrendered just one run in 3.0 innings of relief. Senior Alexsis Ramirez pitched in the sixth inning and gave up three unearned runs.
 
At the plate, Alcorn scattered four hits. They came from McKinney, Lindsey, junior Malea Dickerson and sophomore Sandrea Hord.
 
"It really boils down to getting consistent and developing quality depth. That's really where we are right now. We have a lot of opportunities left and we will get back to work tomorrow and get prepared for Thursday," Rankin said.
 
The Lady Braves will prepare for a busy weekend of eight games in four days, all at Sports Force Parks in Vicksburg, Mississippi. It begins Thursday with a doubleheader against Kentucky State starting at 12 p.m.
 
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