May 26, 2010

Box Score

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Nicholls State University baseball team notched an upset in emphatic fashion on Wednesday as the eighth-seeded Colonels invoked the Southland Conference's ten-run rule to upset No. 1 seed Texas State by a final of 13-2 in 8.0 innings on the first day of the 2010 Southland Conference Tournament at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Nicholls pounded out 18 hits to cruise past the Bobcats for the Colonels first Southland Conference Tournament win since 1998. The last time Nicholls won a game at the league's postseason event was when the Colonels went 4-0 to win the tournament title in Shreveport in 1998.

Every Colonel starter put his name in the hit column and seven of nine recorded multiple hits. Nicholls was led by Steven Gauthe's four-hit day (4-for-5) from the nine-hole. However, Bear Comer, Keith Kulbeth, Beau Faulk, Brady Bourque, Chase Jaramillo and Kevin Schlegel each had a pair of hits to bolster the Colonel cause.

Nicholls started strong, plating seven runs in the first three innings. The Colonels strung together three hits and took advantage of a Bobcat error to score two in the first. Nicholls struck again as RBI singles by Adam Miley and Beau Faulk put Nicholls up 4-0 after two. The Colonels then blew the game open in the third as a two-run homer by Jaramillo and a bases-loaded walk to Miley made it 7-0 and chased Texas State starter Carson Smith (the 2010 Southland Conference Pitcher and Newcomer of the Year) after 2.0-plus innings.

With a 7-0 lead, Nicholls starter Clint Dempster cruised through the early part of the game. The Thibodaux native faced the minimum through the first two before running into trouble in the third. Texas State strung together three hits to plate a pair of runs ad cut Nicholls lead to 7-2 after three full innings of play.

However, Dempster soon settled. The Thibodaux High School product kept the Bobcats off the board the rest of the way, allowing just four hits (all singles) and four walks while striking out two.

With Dempster keeping the Bobcats at bay, the Colonels worked on expanding their lead against the Texas State bullpen. Faulk made it 10-2 in the fifth as he launched a three-run homer off of Bobcat reliever Bryant Rutledge.

After a scoreless sixth and seventh, Nicholls put the game away in the eighth as two hits, a walk, a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch created three more Colonel runs. RBI singles by Gauthe and Schlegel and a sacrifice fly by Comer put Nicholls up 13-2, and after pitching around a leadoff walk thanks to Nicholls' second double-play ball of the afternoon, Dempster finished off the complete game victory for the Colonels.

Nicholls will now prepare to face the winner of No. 4 Stephen F. Austin and No. 5 Texas-Arlington who square off tonight at Whataburger Field. The Colonels and the winner of the Mavs/Jacks matchup will face each other for a scheduled 7 p.m. first pitch on Thursday night.

Live stats and streaming video of every pitch of the 2010 Southland Conference Tournament is available at www.southland.org, and live streaming audio is available for every pitch of every Nicholls game at www.ThibodauxOnline.com.