Final Stats TULSA, Okla. – After allowing just one run through seven innings, the Nicholls State University baseball team came unglued and gave up seven runs in the bottom of the eighth to fall to the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles 8-1 Sunday afternoon at J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa.

Nicholls (23-22, 6-12 SLC) managed just six hits in the game and it proved costly as the Colonels only had three runners get into scoring position in the entire contest coming in the second and eighth frames in the loss, as ORU (15-26, 10-8) had only six, but was helped by two bad errors that led to a four-run frame to pull away for good.

Coming off of a dominating performance against McNeese State last week, Brandon Jackson (2-0) pieced together another strong start going six innings, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Taylor Byrd (4-4) pitched well in the seventh, but ran into trouble at the start of the eighth after a walk and throwing error led to two runners in scoring position before being replaced for Jordan McCoy as the two combined to give up all seven runs on just three hits.

Philip Lyons finished the day 2-for-4 for his first multi-hit game of the weekend, as Matt Richard, Leo Vargas, Tyler Duplantis and Cody Dufrene had one each.

Finally in the fourth a team got a runner past second, as a double and single up the middle put runners at the corners for ORU with one out. An infield grounder looked to be a double play ball but the runner at first was called safe plating the first run of the game to put the Golden Eagles up 1-0.

For just the second time all game the Colonels got a runner in scoring position, this time with a legitimate shot at tying the game after back-to-back singles by Vargas and Lyons put runners at the corners with one out in the eighth. Jackson had come out of the game but remained in the lineup at the designated hitter spot, connecting with a sacrifice fly to right scoring Vargas at third to tie the game at 1-1. A deep fly to the warning track in right field ended the inning.

ORU had just three hits in the seven-run eighth, but made each count as two, two-RBI doubles accounted for four of the runs, with a sacrifice fly and single bringing in the other run.

Nicholls will now have a few days off before hitting the road again next weekend for a three-game set against Sam Houston State in Huntsville.