March 12, 2010
Box Score
THIBODAUX - The Colonels' bats came alive on Friday as the Nicholls State University baseball team strung together 14 hits and plated nine runs to propel the Nicholls State University baseball team (10-3, 1-0 Southland Conference) to a 9-2 win over the Lamar Cardinals (11-3, 0-1 Southland) in the Southland Conference opener for both teams on Friday night at Ray E. Didier Field.
Tristan Rogers led the way for the Colonels, going 2-for-4 with a triple and three RBI, and five more Colonels turned in multi-hit performances in Nicholls first conference victory of the season.
The victory gives Nicholls its tenth consecutive win, and continues the program's longest winning streak since a 12-game stretch in 1986.
The Cardinals struck first with a run in the second off of Nicholls starter Jarret Dunnam. However, the Colonels rallied with three in the bottom half of the inning to take a lead they would not relinquish.
Redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Bergeron stretched his hitting streak to ten games by leading the inning off with a base hit. After Adam Miley reached on an error and Rogers laid down a sacrifice bunt, the Colonels got a two-run double from Cody Dufrene to take a 2-1 lead. Ray Eureste followed by driving home Dufrene on an RBI single to make it 3-1 after two.
The Colonels added three more in the third, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Miley, Rogers' RBI triple and a pair of Cardinal errors to make it 6-1.
Nicholls kept its foot on the gas in the fourth as Rogers delivered a two-run single to make it 8-1.
Lamar tried to mount a comeback with a run in the top of the fifth, but that would be all the Colonels would allow as Dunnam cruised for the Colonels by scattering two runs on five hits while walking two and striking out six in 6.0 IP to pick up the win and improve to 2-0. Cullen Babin came on in relief and worked the final three innings. Babin allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out three in his scoreless outing to pick up his first save of the season.
The Colonels got some extra insurance in the eighth as Mike Barba scored on Lamar's fifth error of the night for the final 9-2 margin.
Lamar's Mattison Smith, who came into the game having not allowed an earned run in 22.0 IP and three starts allowed nine hits and five earned runs.
The two teams continue their three-game series at 3 p.m. at Ray E. Didier Field on Saturday. A streaming audio webcast will be made available at www.ThibodauxOnline.com.
