Feb. 29, 2008

Box Score

THIBODAUX, La. - The Nicholls Colonels baseball team held on to a lead Friday night to claim its first victory of the season, defeating Murray State 3-2 at Ray E. Didier Field

The Colonels (1-5) got five scoreless innings out of freshman starter Seth Webster (1-0) who set a career high with seven strike outs. Dale Dickerson picked up his first save of the season for Nicholls. Mike Perconte took the loss for the Thoroughbreds, falling to 0-2 on the season.

"I'm very proud of Seth Webster," noted Colonel head coach Chip Durham. "He came out and went five innings for us. Normally he might have gone longer, but we had him on a pitch count early in the ball game. But our bullpen did a great job keeping us in this game, and tonight our two errors didn't hurt us. Their guy threw a great ball game against us. He's got a great arm. But our late run made the difference for us."

In the bottom of the second inning, Brandt Boudreaux singled to right, plating Anthony Wray and the next batter for the Colonels, Zac Bone laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Patrick Thompson.

Murray State threatened in the fifth, knocking through back-to-back singles by Blake Helm and Kyle Tiernan to put a runner in scoring position, but the Colonels got out of the inning with no damage done.

But the Thoroughbred's put a run of their own on the board in the seventh after Andrew Cella drew a lead-off walk. Matt Sheer pinch ran for Cella and came around to score on a sac bunt and a wild pitch to cut the Colonel lead in half.

Nicholls got the run back in the eighth when Wray doubled and scored on an infield single by Thompson to give the Colonels a 3-1 advantage.

"We've got the pressure off of us now," added Durham. "We know we can win so now we can just come out and play and have fun and enjoy some ball games."

Boudreaux went 2-for-2 with one RBI and Thompson finished with one hit and and RBI on the night.

Sixth-year senior Bryan Myers pitched three innings of relief for Nicholls, striking out four of the 10 batters he faced.

The Colonels and 'Breds will face off in game two of the three-game series tomorrow. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m. Fans can follow the action via live stats at www.GeauxColonels.com and can listen to the game live on the internet at www.ThibodauxOnLine.com.