NICEVILLE – Winners of seven of eight and sporting an 8-1 mark at home, the Northwest Florida State Raiders came into the 13th An-nual Jimmy Stewart Invitational playing their best ball of the year.
View a photo gallery from the first game >>
But that momentum paled in comparison to LSU-Eunice, which entered Friday night on a 20-game win streak after shutting out Gulf Coast 3-0 earlier in the day.
The 26-2 Bengals, having not lost since Feb. 3, continued that hot spell in a 5-2 victory over the Raiders.
The Bengals received a four-hit gem from starter Brooklyn Guillot and her offense delivered three runs in the seventh inning as part of a 10-hit effort against Jessica Colliver.
Guillot struck out two, walked four and stranded six, holding the 22-7 Raiders to a 1-for-5 clip with runners in scoring position.
And for most of the night, Colliver, who allowed just three earned runs and struck out six, matched her pitch for pitch.
Benefitting from a two-run second frame, the right-handed sophomore entered the sixth with a 2-1 lead. Aside from allowing an RBI dou-ble to left in the second, she was near perfect with six strikeouts and only five hits allowed through five. At one point she had even retired nine straight, an impressive run that started with a pair of strikeouts in the second inning with runners at the corners and ended on a one-out single by Pamela Wainwright in the fifth frame.
But in the sixth, an error by second baseman Jenn Phillips to lead off the frame gave the Bengals an extra out and allowed for a Brook-lynn Clark RBI double to right.
Then in the seventh, the floodgates opened.
After a one-out single by Morgan Tauzin, Phillips once again struggled to field a grounder and Brooke Thomas reached first on the error. Codi Covington followed with an RBI single to center and then Kelsey Hollier laced a two-run double up the right foul line to stretch the lead to 5-2.
Struggling to piece together hits, the Raiders received only one extra-base hit from Hannah Day in the fifth. Burton, who had the only RBI for the Raiders, Phillips and Letecia Matsuoka each added a hit for the Raiders, who played Wabash in the nightcap.