April 30, 2010

Box Score

THIBODAUX - Colonel junior left hander Clint Dempster delivered a dominant performance on Friday night, striking out 16 Southeastern Louisiana batters, allowing just one earned run and turning in his third complete game of the season to give the Nicholls State University baseball team (22-19, 11-11 Southland Conference) a 5-3 win in the opener of a three-game series against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions (31-13, 13-9 Southland).

The Colonel defense committed a pair of costly errors that led to unearned runs in the first and second innings as the Colonels fell behind 2-0 early on. However, Dempster took control the rest of the way. The Thibodaux native didn't allow a runner to reach second base from the third through the sixth innings and fanned 16 Lion batters, bettering his previous career high of 11 set April 2 at Texas-Arlington.

With Dempster cruising through the Southeastern lineup, the Nicholls offense got to work. After managing just one base runner in the first two innings against Southeastern starter Brandon Efferson, the Colonels strung together a walk to Keith Kulbeth and singles by Kevin Schlegel and Adam Miley to load the bases with two outs in the third.

Beau Faulk, who extended his hitting streak to 12 games (a season high for a Colonel) delivered with a bases clearing triple to put Nicholls up 3-2.

The Colonels extended their lead in the fourth as Chase Jaramillo led off with a sharp single up the middle. Kasey Culverson reached base when Efferson committed an error on his sacrifice bunt. A passed ball put runners at second and third before an RBI ground out from Schlegel and an RBI single by Bear Comer made it 5-2.

The Lions threatened to get back into the game, as Dempster allowed his only earned run of the ballgame in the seventh inning. Josh Cryer drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on an infield hit by Phillip Freeman, took third as Cass Hargis grounded into a fielder's choice, and came home to score on an RBI single by Justin Boudreaux. Fortunately, for the Colonels, Dempster regained his composure by retiring the next seven batters (four by strikeout) to shut down the Lions the rest of the way.

Dempster struck out eight of the nine starters in the Southeastern lineup.

With the win, the Colonels extended their winning streak to four games and put themselves in good position to claim their third consecutive series victory. Nicholls has won seven of its last eight games and has returned to the .500 mark in conference play for the first time since being 4-4 in league action following a March 27 win over Stephen F. Austin.

The Colonels will look to clinch their third consecutive Southland Conference series victory when the two teams head to Hammond for a noon first pitch at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field in Hammond. The series finale is set for 1 p.m. at Ray E. Didier Field in Thibodaux.

NOTES:

With 12 regular season games (11 Southland Conference games) remaining the Colonels need the following:

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

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

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

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

With last weekend's two-out-of-three series victory at Sam Houston State combined with a two-of-three series win at Central Arkansas the week before, the Colonels have won consecutive conference series for the first time since 2001.

The last time Nicholls won consecutive Southland Conference series was 2001 when the Colonels won three straight series: at Lamar (March 24: W, 9-4; March 24: L, 9-7; March 25: W, 7-4), against Northwestern State (March 30, W, 7-3; March 31: L, 18-5; April 1: W, 8-6) and at Louisiana-Monroe (April 5: W, 11-4, April 6: W, 3-2; April 7: L, 12-7).

One more win against the Lions would give Nicholls three straight Southland series wins since that time.

Hot-Hitting Colonels:

Five Colonel batters extended hitting streaks in Friday's game.

Junior Beau Faulk leads the way with an 12-game streak, surpassing teammate Adam Miley's season long 11-game streak by a Colonel set from March 27-April 13. Faulk has hit .512 (22-for-43) over his last 12 games (April 10-April 30) with six runs, 16 RBI, 2 2B, 1 HR, a .588 OBP, a .628 slugging percentage and seven multi-hit games.

Leadoff man Bear Comer has hit safely in each of his last ten games. Comer has hit .444 (16-for-36), 16 R, 5 RBI, 1 2B, 12 BB, .592 OBP, .472 slugging percentage from April 13-April 30.

Brady Bourque has compiled an eight-game hitting streak. Bourque has hit .400 (12-for-30), 7 R, 11 RBI, 2 2B, 1 HR, a .400 OBP and .567 slugging percentage from April 17-April 30.

Chase Jaramillo has hit .333 (11-for-33) over his eight-game hitting streak. Jaramillo has collected 7 R, 4 RBI, a .353 OBP and a .333 slugging percentage from April 17-30.

Adam Miley has hit safely in his last eight games. He has hit .333 (11-for-33), 6 R, 6 RBI, a .361 OBP, and a .364 slugging percentage.

Keith Kulbeth's hitting streak came to an end on Friday. Kulbeth had hit safely in his last five games. Kulbeth was 7-for-20 (.350 BA), 7 R, 8 RBI, 4 extra-base hits (1 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR), a .435 OBP and an .800 slugging percentage in his previous five games.