Final Stats NACOGDOCHES, Texas – With the postseason at stake, the Nicholls baseball team jumped out to a five-run lead in the first inning of the series opener against Stephen F. Austin on Thursday in route to a 7-2 win over the Lumberjacks Thursday afternoon.

Nicholls (26-26, 13-17) did not wait to strike and continued to put the bats on Jacks pitching, as SFA (21-31, 14-17) used three pitchers on the afternoon, while Nicholls starter Seth Webster (6-5) earned his fourth complete game win of the year giving up two runs, one earned, scattering six hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

Jeremy Hill and Beau Faulk each finished with two hits on the day, with Hill extending his career record hitting streak to 14 games and reached base streak to 27 games. On the day eight of the nine Colonel batters had a hit in the game to finish with ten as a team.

Philip Lyons was hit by pitch to begin the Nicholls at bat in the first, and was followed by Matt Richard who reached on an error by the shortstop as Lyons was stealing second. A first-pitch single by Hill to centerfield loaded the bases, while Blake Bergeron repeated and singled to center driving in both Lyons and Richard to give Nicholls a 2-0 lead with no outs. Bergeron stole second as a strikeout put the first out on the board. A single up the middle by Austin Flores scored Hill and Bergeron to put the Colonels up 4-0, as Faulk singled on the first pitch he saw to put two runners back on. A chopper groundout to the shortstop advanced both to second and third, as Zorn singled through the right side scoring Flores for a 5-0 Colonel lead. A deep fly out to right field ended the Nicholls inning.

With two outs, a two base error after a walk allowed an SFA run to cross the plate on a stand-up double to make the score 5-1 Nicholls.

The Jacks scored another run on three hits in the fifth after Webster had retired nine batters in order up until that point, with SFA still trailing 5-2.

After getting hit by a pitch, Cody Dufrene advanced to third after a sacrifice bunt and groundout in the sixth. A walk to Richard put runners at the corners, but a fly ball out ended the inning.

Richard was hit by a pitch to begin the ninth inning after another SFA pitching change. With Hill at the plate, a single to right-center advanced Richard to third, but the throw in to third base came in too hot, Hill moved up to second and Richard scored on the play giving the Colonels a 7-2 lead. A 6-4-3 grounder double play put two outs on the board and another grounder to the shortstop ended the inning.

Game two of the series will begin on Friday at 2 p.m. at Jaycees Field in Nacogdoches.