THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team opens Southland Conference play on Friday night, hosting the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks at 6:30 p.m. at Ray E. Didier Field in Thibodaux.

All three games of the series will be streamed through Colonels All-Access through GeauxColonels.com with live stats available for each game of the series. Audio will be available on KTIB 640 AM in Thibodaux, as well as on the web at ThibodauxOnline.com for Saturday and Sunday only.

Friday night is also Dixie Youth Night at the field, as all members of the area youth baseball league will be admitted in for free, with some joining the players on the field for the playing of the national anthem. All players and teams are encouraged to wear their uniforms and will be able to sit on the home side down the third base line. A representative of Southern Tide apparel will also be on hand, giving out some of their merchandise randomly throughout the game.

Nicholls is coming off of one of its best overall weekends of the season, taking three of four games against the San Jose State Spartans in California to move to 12-10 overall, claiming its fourth series of the year. In the process the Colonels improved their record to 5-6 in road games, and are on the third three-game winning streak of the season.

After losing 3-2 in 11 innings in the opener last Friday, the Colonels clamped down both offensively and defensively outscoring the Spartans 19-3 over the course of the final three games, committing zero errors. The 18 hits Nicholls produced in the final game was a season-high for the squad, finishing with 50 on the weekend to move to 8-2 on the season when outhitting an opponent.

The Colonels were not satisfied with just singles on Sunday, as the team smacked eight doubles on the day led by Cody Dufrene's career-high three on the afternoon. The 12 the team hit in the final three games of the series is the most during a three-game stretch, totaling 41 through the season so far. Leading the team at the plate last week was junior shortstop Leo Vargas who averaged .471 with eight hits and four RBI, backed by a career-best 4-for-5 day against the Spartans.

With a team ERA of 2.93 last week, Nicholls got some solid outings from its starting pitchers, including a pair of outings from Taylor Byrd and Kory Delange.

Byrd was honored with the league's pitcher of the week award on Monday after earning the second complete game win of the weekend, allowing just one run on five hits with eight strikeouts for his fourth victory on Sunday, while Delange pitched all seven innings in the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday, allowing a run on eight hits with three strikeouts.

Grant Borne made two appearances on the week, pitching eight innings of scoreless ball with eight strikeouts to just seven hits, as Mike Suk did not walk a batter for the second consecutive start, moving his strikeout-to-walk numbers to 30-4.

The team opening the Southland schedule is the same one that knocked Nicholls out of the conference tournament last season in Stephen F. Austin, as with a chance to make it to the league tournament for a record third-straight season, the Lumberjacks hit a walk-off single in the ninth to take the series 2-1 and move on in the regular season finale.

SFA, losers of its last three games and 9-11 on the season, will be trying to continue its recent success over Nicholls as the Lumberjacks have won the last six series against the Colonels dating back to 2007.