| Senior Amanda Nikolenko (left) and freshman Danye Holmes led UTSA to a doubleheader sweep on Saturday at Nicholls State. | |
THIBODAUX, La. ? Senior Amanda Nikolenko added two victories to her UTSA career-record tally and freshman Danye Holmes drove in eight runs, as UTSA swept a Southland Conference doubleheader at Nicholls State, 8-1 and 8-7, on Saturday afternoon at the Colonel Complex.
The Roadrunners improved to 18-14 overall and 13-4 in league play, extending their conference winning streak to eight games in the process. The Colonels fell to 16-20 and 6-8.
Nikolenko struck out 11 and allowed just one run on three hits in the opener and tossed two scoreless innings in the nightcap in running her record to 10-7 overall and 7-2 in SLC play. She extended her all-time records to 64 victories, 549 strikeouts, 668.2 innings and 98 starts. The right-hander combined to strike out 15 against just one walk and allowed just five hits in the two appearances.
Meanwhile, Holmes led an UTSA offense that produced 16 runs in the twinbill. She was 2-for-3 with three RBIs in game one and 2-4 with a homer and five RBIs in game two.
Trailing 6-4 in the nightcap, the Roadrunners took a 7-6 lead on a three-run blast by Holmes. Senior Kourtney Jones walked and junior Leanne Risberg was hit by a pitch, setting up Holmes’ round-tripper to right center.
The Colonels knotted the score at 7-7, as Audrey Wood reached on a leadoff double and scored on a two-out triple down the left field line by Rachel Pugh.
UTSA took an 8-7 lead in the top of the seventh on sophomore Rudi Cantu’s two-out, infield single to shortstop that plated sophomore Kelly Cato, who reached on an error.
The Roadrunners took a 1-0 lead on an infield single by Whitney Balch that scored Cantu, who reached on a single, in the top of the first. Danielle Clayton answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the frame.
A two-run double by Holmes in the second gave UTSA a 3-1 lead, but Nicholls plated five runs in the third, highlighted by a grand slam from Wood, for a 6-3 advantage.
A Risberg single cut the deficit to 6-4, setting up the late-inning heroics.
In the opener, an RBI-single in the first and a two-run single in the second from Holmes helped stake the Roadrunners to a 4-0 lead after one and one-half innings.
Wood doubled to lead off the bottom of the second and scored in a single up the middle by Nicole Smith.
That would be the only run of the day the Colonels would muster off Nikolenko, as
UTSA tacked on four more runs, capped by a two-run triple from Cantu in the seventh.
Risberg had three hits and three RBIs on the day, while Cantu and Balch collected two hits apiece for the Roadrunners.
Wood (5-2) allowed five earned runs on seven hits in four innings in the loss in game one, while Lacey Gros (4-3) gave up seven runs on five hits in six frames in the nightcap. Wood and Clayton had three hits each to lead the Nicholls offense in the twinbill.
Game three is set for noon Sunday.