March 17, 2010
Box Score
BATON ROUGE - Keith Kulbeth staked the Colonels to an early lead with his second homer of the year, but it wasn't enough to overcome a pair of big innings from the No. 3/7 LSU Tigers (14-2) as the Nicholls State University baseball team (11-5, 2-1 Southland Conference) fell victim to a four-run fourth inning that broke the game wide open for LSU en route to a 10-3 loss at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge on Wednesday.
The Colonels were riding high heading into the St. Patrick's Day date with the perennial national powers. Nicholls had won 11 of their previous 12 games heading into Wednesday and were fresh off winning their first conference series of the season by taking two out of three against Lamar over the weekend. However, after dropping two of three against Kansas last weekend, the Tigers were eager to regain the form that earned them the No. 1 ranking in the country.
Nicholls, which won the only meeting between the two schools on April 1, 2009, was looking for wins in consecutive seasons over the Tigers for the first time since going 4-3 against LSU from 1978 and 1980 seasons.
The Colonels jumped out to an early lead as Kulbeth launched his second home run of the year. The first inning solo shot put Nicholls up 1-0 before the Tigers got their first turn at the plate.
However, after Nicholls' starter Ryan Cooper recorded a three-up three-down inning against the Tigers, LSU pulled even in the second. Leon Landry's solo shot to right knotted the game at 1-1.
After trading zeroes in the third, the Colonels reclaimed the lead in the top of the fourth. Kulbeth got things started with a double to right, and Blake Bergeron was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second. Adam Miley moved the runners along with a sacrifice bunt, and Tristan Rogers plated Kulbeth with an RBI fielder's choice to make it 2-1 in the top of the fourth.
However, the Tigers struck back and claimed their first lead of the game in the bottom half of the inning. After retiring the first two batters of the inning, Cooper ran into trouble. A walk to Mikie Mahtook and a single by Landry put runners at second and third. An infield hit from Tyler Hanover tied the game at 2-2, and a three-run homer by Matt Gaudet put LSU up 5-2 after four.
The Tigers increased their lead in the fifth thanks to a walk, a hit batsmen, a Colonel error and a wild pitch. That, combined with a double from Mahtook added up to a two-run fifth and a 7-2 Tiger lead.
After the Colonel pitching staff appeared to settle in against the Tigers, keeping LSU off the board in the sixth and seventh, the Tigers tacked on three more in the eighth. Four wild pitches, a walk, two errors and a pair of hits gave LSU a three-run inning and a 10-2 advantage.
Miley delivered a solo homer of his own, his fourth of the year (and fourth in his last five games), in the top of the ninth for the final 10-3 margin.
The Colonels will look to avoid their second three-game losing streak of the season (their first since a season-opening three game sweep against UL-Lafayette) when they return to Southland Conference action this weekend with a trip to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Colonels and Islanders begin a three-game set starting on Friday.
