Box Score and Play-by-Play

SAN MARCOS, Texas - The Nicholls State University baseball team (28-29) rallied from a 5-0 deficit, but the nationally ranked No. 1 seed Texas State Bobcats (39-21) kept up the pressure, pulling away for a 10-7 win over the Colonels in an elimination semifinal game on the final day of the 2011 Southland Conference Tournament at Bobcat Baseball Stadium in San Marcos.

For the second consecutive year, the No. 8 seed Colonels upset the regular season conference champions on the first day of the tournament, forcing the Bobcats to fight to stay alive in the double elimination event.  However, for the second consecutive year, the Bobcats (ranked No. 25 in the nation by Baseball America heading into the tournament) rattled off four consecutive victories to clinch a berth in the conference tournament championship.  Texas State will face No. 2 seed Stephen F. Austin in a winner-take-all contest slated for a 6 p.m. start.  The winner clinches the Southland Conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

For Nicholls, the 2011 season comes to an end with Nicholls claiming it's most wins since a 28-win campaign in 2002.  The Colonels clinched consecutive trips to the Southland Tournament for the first time in school history, finished just two wins shy of their first 30-win season since 1993 and tied the program record for most Southland Conference victories (15).

Texas State jumped out to an early lead with one in the first, two in the third and two in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead.  However, the Colonels got back into the ballgame in the bottom of the fourth, stringing together three hits and taking advantage of a Bobcat error to plate three runs and cut the Texas State lead to 5-3.  Junior third baseman Blake Bergeron reached on a throwing error, took second on a sacrifice bunt and came home to score on an RBI single by junior second baseman Austin Flores.  Junior first baseman Beau Faulk then followed by launching his first home run of the year, making it 5-3 after four.

Unfortunately, for Nicholls, Texas State wasn't done yet.  The Bobcats answered the Nicholls rally with a three-run top of the fifth to take an 8-3 lead.  The Colonels struck again in the bottom of the sixth as Flores doubled and advanced on a pair of groundouts to cross the plate and make it 8-4.

Texas State added two more in the top of the seventh to make it 10-4, claiming a six-run lead, their largest of the day.  However, Bergeron launched his team-leading fifth home run of the season (a solo shot) in the bottom half of the seventh to make it 10-5.

After a scoreless eighth, the Colonels tried to mounce one last rally in a do-or-die bottom of the ninth.  Junior designated hitter Jeremy Hill led off the inning by reaching second base on a throwing error.  A one-out RBI single by senior right fielder Scott Moseley brought home Hill to make it 10-6.  Flores followed with a base hit to put runners at first and third and Faulk added a sacrifice fly to bring home Moseley and make it 10-7.  However, that would be as close as the Colonels would get as senior catcher Jason Dennis grounded out for the final out of the ballgame.