April 21, 2010

Box Score

THIBODAUX - The Colonel pitching staff retired 11 of the first 12 batters it faced to dominate early, and the Nicholls lineup used a four-run fourth to pull away from the Privateers as the Nicholls State University baseball team (18-18) improved to 13-7 at home with a 6-3 over the University of New Orleans (10-26) at Ray E. Didier Field on Wednesday.

Ryan Cooper got the start on a night when the Colonels scheduled seven pitchers to get work. The sophomore allowed just one walk and no hits while striking out two in his 3.0 IP.

With Cooper cruising early on, the Colonels finally broke through against Andrew Velez in the third. Adam Miley drove a sharp single through the right side of the infield to stake Nicholls to a 1-0 lead.

Cooper gave way to Josh Labiche in the fourth. After retiring the first two batters he faced, the Privateers took advantage of consecutive errors by the Colonel infield to put runners at first and second. UNO center fielder Mike Petello followed with an RBI single up the middle to tie the game at 1-1.

However, Nicholls took the lead for good in the Colonels next trip to the plate. Nicholls exploded for four runs on four hits in the bottom of the fourth. Bear Comer's two run single scored Brady Bourque and Stephen Gauthe and was followed by a two-run homer by Keith Kulbeth, his fourth on the year. Heading into the fifth, Nicholls had built a 5-1 lead.

The Colonel pitching staff returned to form in the fifth, sixth and seventh, as Drew Erwin, Brent Bonvillian and Brian Arceneaux each recorded 1.0 scoreless inning of relief.

UNO made things interesting in the eighth as Jerad Comarda notched a two-run double to make it 5-3, however Nicholls responded in the home half of the eighth as Kevin Schlegel doubled home a run to make it 6-3.

Brad Delatte came on to finish things off, picking up his fourth save of the season by delivering 1.0 inning of hitless, scoreless relief.

Nicholls will return to action when the Colonels head to Sam Houston State for a weekend series with the defending conference tournament champion Bearkats. Nicholls heads into the weekend tied for the eighth and final conference tournament spot with SHSU. The three-game series begins with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch for Friday's game one.

NOTES:

Beau Faulk extended his hitting streak to seven games, although his streak of multi-hit games ended at five, when he went 1-for-3 against the Privateers. Over his seven game streak, Faulk has hit .600 with five multi-hit games.

With 17 regular season games remaining the Colonels need the following:

2 more overall wins for their first 20-win season since going 22-31 in 2005.

2 more conference wins for their first 10-win Southland Conference season since going 11-15 in the Southland in 2002.

7 more overall wins for their first 25-win season since going 28-26 in 2003.

7 more conference wins for their first 15-win Southland Conference season since going 15-12 against Southland competition in 2000.

12 more overall wins for their first 30-win season since going 31-19 in 1993.

12 more conference wins for their first ever 20-win conference season.