COLUMBUS, Ga. – LSU Eunice scored a pair of wins in Friday's opening day of the NFCA Lead-Off Classic from the South Commons Complex in Columbus, Ga.  The 19-team field had action moved up due to the threat of inclement weather later this weekend.
 
LSU Eunice rallied to take down Northwest Florida State, 3-2, followed by a convincing 7-2 victory over Lansing CC.  The Bengals are 2-0 in Pool 4 play and will await seeding in bracket play which is scheduled to begin on Saturday.
 
LSUE will play a pool crossover game against San Jacinto College on Saturday at 8:00AM.  Make sure to stay tuned to LSU Eunice Softball's social media pages for bracketed opponents.  All games can be heard live on the Bayou Sports Network with Randy Guillory on the call.
 
Game 1 vs. Northwest Florida State College – W, 3-2
Madison Monson (Walker, LA, Walker HS) would provide all the offense LSUE would need as the Bengals escaped with a 3-2 win against Northwest Florida State College.  Monson would rope a two-out single in the fifth inning to help the Bengals regain the lead with the go ahead run scoring off a Raider error.
 
The sophomore also scored the first run of the game, using a sacrifice line out to plate Rylie Candella (Centerville, LA, Centerville HS).  The Bengals used two walks in the inning to eventually score the go-ahead run.
 
Jensen Howell (Alexandria, LA, Holy Savior Menard HS) would toss her fifth complete game of the season to improve to 8-2.  Howell gave up two earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out six batters.  Northwest Florida's two runs would come in the fifth inning as the Raiders got four of their six hits in that frame.
 
Game 2 vs. Lansing CC – W, 7-2
LSU Eunice used a late offensive attack and a solid outing in the circle from Heather Zumo (Baton Rouge, LA, Central HS) to take down Lansing CC 7-2.
 
The sophomore tossed one of her best outings of the spring, sitting down a season's best 11 batters while scattering two earned runs on six hits and a walk.  Zumo would work out of a one-out bases loaded jam in the second with a pair of strikeouts to squash the threat.

Heidi Zumo (Baton Rouge, LA, Central HS) would pitch a scoreless final inning of relief.
 
LSU Eunice would break a scoreless tie in the fourth with Hannah Smith (Lafayette, LA, Catholic-New Iberia HS) connecting on a two-out liner to score Mallory Little (Opelousas, LA, Opelousas Catholic HS).  Sara Tate (Bayou Chicot, LA, Pine Prairie HS) jump start the Bengals in the fifth inning with a run scoring single to begin a four-run frame.  Tate would later score in the inning on a Mallory Little single.  Hannah Smith capped off the big inning with a RBI double to right field.
 
Smith joined Little, Tate and Lele Martinez (Scott, LA, Acadiana HS) with multi-hit games to pace the 10-hit LSUE attack.
 
Lansing would score its lone runs of the game in the sixth, followed by a pair from the Bengals in the seventh highlighted by Madison Monson's RBI triple.