Box Score and Play-by-Play

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Nicholls State University baseball team (8-14, 1-8 Southland Conference) rallied from a 1-0 deficit to tie the ballgame, but four unanswered runs by a first-place Stephen F. Austin squad (18-7, 8-1 Southland Conference) gave the Lumberjacks the rubber match of the three-game set by a score of 5-1 in Nacogdoches on Sunday.

After the Colonels claimed the series opener on Friday night by a final of 6-2, SFA outlasted Nicholls 10-7 in a Saturday slugfest that evened the series at one game apiece and set the stage for the rubber match between the two league rivals on Sunday.

The series finale began as a pitchers' duel between Nicholls junior lefty Mike Wisecarver and Lumberjack starter Zack Taylor.  Wisecarver delivered his second straight solid outing, holding the first place team in the league to just three runs on six hits in 7.0 IP.  Unfortunately, for Nicholls, Taylor was just as solid for SFA, allowing just one run on four hits over the course of his own 7.0 IP outing.

The Lumberjacks took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to an RBI groundout by Darrin Crabtree, but the Colonels knotted things up in the fourth as senior right fielder Scott Moseley was hit by a pitch, stole second and came home to score on an RBI single by junior right fielder Michael LeGrange.

However, after the Colonels tied things up in the top of the fourth, SFA reclaimed the lead in the home half of the frame as another RBI groundout made it 2-1 in favor of the Lumberjacks.  Wisecarver settled in, retiring eight of the next nine batters he faced to keep SFA off the board in the fifth and sixth, but the Lumberjacks tacked on one more run in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a two-our RBI triple to make it 3-1 in favor of SFA and chase Wisecarver after seven innings.

Unfortunately, for Nicholls, Taylor, and a pair of SFA relievers kept the Colonels off the board over the final four innings and the Lumberjacks added two more in the eighth to clinch the 5-1 win.

The Colonels will now return to Louisiana to host Loyola-New Orleans at Southland Field in Houma on Tuesday night with first pitch scheduled at 6 p.m.  The Colonels will return to Nicholls on Wednesday to host Alcorn State at 6 p.m. before returning to conference play, hosting Texas-Arlington on Friday.