BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Fairfield University softball team's run through the postseason came to an end on Saturday night with a 6-2 setback to McNeese State University at the 2017 Baton Rouge NCAA Softball Regional.

Both teams endured lengthy rain delays throughout the day with first pitch of this game coming more than six hours after its schedule 2:30 start. But when the time finally came, both teams put on a strong showing.

Pitcher Destinee Pallotto took the mound for her consecutive postseason start against the Cowgirls, winning four of those five starts prior to tonight. The junior started the game as she did in her previous appearances - in a dominate way. She yielded only a walk in the first inning and retired the side in order in the second inning, which allowed Fairfield to stay in a scoreless battle.

The scoreless game soon had runs in the top of the third as Fairfield put the first runs on the board. Courtney Hankins opened the inning with her second hit of the night, which Tori Reed followed with a two-run homer into the right-center field bleachers to give the Stags their first lead in an NCAA tournament game at 2-0.

But the third inning seemed to be the one that caught up to Pallotto as the right-hander saw her streak of 33 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run come to an end. Alexandra Saldivar launched a three-run home run over the left field fence to give McNeese a 3-2 lead. The Cowgirls added another run in the inning off an RBI single that made the score 4-2 after three complete innings.

Fairfield had plenty of opportunities for the rest of the game, leaving 10 runners on base over the course of the game. But McNeese pitchers Rachel Smith and Alexsandra Flores would not yield another run the rest of the way.

Hankins finished the game with three hits in four at-bats while Reed, Kristen Ball, Gianna Kinhofer, and Alisha Marshall each had a hit in the game.

“I think we came out swinging the sticks and did a great job offensively," Head Coach Julie Brzezinski said. "McNeese is a great team, and they swung the bats well. (Pitcher) Destinee (Pallotto) tried as long as she could to hold up; she's been our workhorse for the last two weeks. The kids played hard and that's all we can ask for.”