Lamar sports information

THIBODAUX, La. —Laura Napoli tossed her third shutout of the year as the Lamar Cardinals gained a split of their Southland Conference softball doubleheader with a 1-0 victory over Nicholls State in eight innings in Saturday’s nightcap after Nicholls claimed a 5-4 win in nine innings in the opening game.

Napoli (8-7) scattered five hits while walking none and striking out three. The sophomore right-hander needed just 97 pitches for her school-record 29th career complete game, as she moved past Karen Castilaw, who threw 28 complete games in 1984.

“That looked like the Laura Napoli who won 19 games for us last season,” LU coach Holly Bruder said. “She got ahead of the hitters and was in control the whole day.”

Napoli was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Nicholls’ Megan Landry (15-7), who also allowed just five hits. Two of those hits would come in the decisive eighth inning. Sable Hankins hit a two-out double before Stephanie Meeuwsen followed with an RBI single up the middle to score Corina Thornton, who pinch ran for Hankins.

Napoli made short work of Nicholls in the bottom of the eight, setting the Colonels down in order on just six pitches as the Cardinals (32-20 overall, 18-9 Southland) wrapped up the regular season on a high note. LU will be the No. 3 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament that gets under way Wednesday in Lake Charles, La.

“We played a tremendous game,” Bruder said of the win. “We got great defense and timely hitting. That’s the way we’re going to have to play in the tournament.”

Meeuwsen had two hits for LU in the nightcap.

In the opener, Nicholls scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 4 before scoring the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

LU opens the tournament when it meets sixth-seeded Sam Houston State at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the double-elimination event.