Final Stats LAKE CHARLES, La. – Leading for most of the game, the Nicholls baseball team had to overcome the loss of a head coach and player, eventually falling to the McNeese State Cowboys 8-7 in ten innings Sunday afternoon at Cowboy Diamond.

Nicholls (13-11, 4-5 SLC) maintained a lead for nearly seven innings before McNeese (9-12, 5-3) scored three in the bottom of the seventh before plating the final run of the game in the tenth to close out the game.

Mike Wisecarver went six innings for the Colonels, allowing seven runs, six earned, with two strikeouts in the no decision, while Jordan McCoy (0-2) earned the loss giving up one run on four hits in 2.2 innings of work.

Beau Faulk, Michael LeGrange and Austin Flores finished the game with two hits each, as Faulk drove in three RBI's on the afternoon.

Barba was walked to lead off the game in the first inning. A sacrifice bunt by Lyons advanced Barba to second, and followed that up with stealing third safely. Faulk struck out in the next at bat, but the inning continued after Bergeron was walked on five pitches. The Colonels pulled off a successful double steal, as Barba scored and Bergeron advanced to second. LeGrange struck out to end the inning with Nicholls leading 1-0.

Flores singled to left field to begin the second inning, and a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt by Richard advanced the Colonel shortstop to second. A 6-3 groundout by Evan Weibel pushed Flores to third with two outs. David Zorn went the distance in his at bat, getting to a full count before getting walked to put runners at the corners for the second straight inning. After Barba was walked, Lyons was down two strikes before getting to a full count and getting hit by a pitch to bring in Flores. Faulk then doubled to the left field line to clear the bases and put the Colonels up five. Bergeron walked and put two runners back on base for the Colonels, but LeGrange grounded out to the first baseman to end the inning.

McNeese's Michael Sullivan took a ball that was left right over the plate and took it over the fence in left center for a two run home run to make the score 5-2, and escaped the inning without further damage.

Flores walked to get on first to begin the third, and after the third pitching change for the afternoon walked Richard with no outs left. With the runners going Weibel chopped a grounder to the third baseman to push the runners to second and third. With Zorn at the plate, Flores got caught in a rundown while Richard advanced to third, and Zorn capitalized by singling through the right side to drive in Richard to go up 6-2. Zorn would steal second and advance to third on a passed ball, but would be left at third as Barba struck out swinging to put a close to the inning.

A wild bottom half of the third led to a set of plays that would alter the course of the rest of the game. After a single by Connor Lloyd and plunking by Renny Weber, Nick Eubanks doubled down the left field line to set the runners in motion with Lloyd scoring, but a great relay throw by Legrange to Faulk to Weibel got Weber at the plate, but in the process Weibel got injured and dropped the ball which Wisecarver picked up and threw out Eubanks at third base. Weibel had to leave the game with a leg injury, and was followed by Nicholls coach Seth Thibodeaux who had an argument with umpire Tom Walkoviak and was ejected from the game. The next batter flew out to end the inning with the score 6-3.

In the fourth Lyons walked to start the Nicholls inning, but was caught stealing second for the first out of the inning. Faulk hit his second double of the game to the same part of the park as the first one, down the left field line. After a Bergeron fly out, LeGrange singled to advance Faulk to third, but got caught stealing to end the inning.

Flores singled up the middle to start the fifth, and after a Richard fly ball, Cody Dufrene in his first at bat hit a sky high ball to left field that froze everyone, including the McNeese left fielder, that dropped fair and led to a double for the catcher. A wild pitch allowed Flores to cross the plate to put Nicholls up 7-3 but two ground outs ended the inning for the Colonels in the next two at bats.

In the sixth, Lyons began the inning with a single to the second baseman. In the next at bat, Faulk grounded into the 5-4-3 double play, but the fireworks continued as Lyons and McNeese second baseman Lloyd were both ejected and was soon followed by Cowboys coach Terry Burrows. The Colonels would end the inning with a groundout.

Three singles in the home half of the inning after a strikeout allowed a run to score, but a failed pop up bunt caught by Faulk at first base and fired to Bergeron at third got the final of the inning to maintain a 7-4 lead.

A single in between two hit batters gave McNeese a bases loaded opportunity in the bottom of the seventh, and with White coming on he walked the first batter to make the score 7-5 Nicholls. The second batter flew out to center but drove in another run to make the score 7-6. Brad Delatte came on after, and got the first batter to fly out to left field, then switched to Jordan McCoy. A hard hit ball to Flores that was scooped up ended in a low throw to Faulk at first and the ball flew into the air and allowed another run to cross the plate and tie the game. Fortunately the Colonels got out of the inning with no more runners crossing the plate.

McNeese got runners at the corners in the bottom of the tenth after a walk and single with only one out. A perfectly placed sacrifice bunt to McCoy was bobbled and allowed the winning run to cross the plate to end the game.

The Colonels will stay on the road, traveling for the finale of the in-season series with the Southern Jaguars on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Baton Rouge.