Final Stats Box Score

HOUSTON – The Nicholls State University baseball team dropped its 2014 season opener at Houston, as the Cougars used a five-hit combined shutout to defeat the Colonels in the first games of the series, 3-0, Friday night at Cougar Field.

Despite a solid effort on the mound by lefty Taylor Byrd, who struck out six Cougars in five innings, the Colonels (0-1) could only muster two hits off Houston (1-0) starter Aaron Garza. Garza fanned six batters in seven innings of work and issued just one free pass.

Byrd allowed just one single in the first two frames, but Houston took a 1-0 lead in the third when Casey Grayson belted a solo shot on a 1-0 count. Byrd gave up three more singles the rest of the way before leaving after five innings.

The Colonels put up their first hit of the night when Christian Correa slapped a two-out single up the middle in the fifth. Two innings later with one down, Justin Smith found a whole through the ride side to give Nicholls its second hit off Garza. But Garza got out of the jam, getting a groundout by Marc Frazier before forcing a flyout off the bat of Charles Morton.

With Garza out of the game, Nicholls put together a two-out rally in the eighth against Chase Wellbrock. Justin Holt started things off with a base knock down the right field line, and Philip Lyons followed with an infield single which moved Holt to third. With runners in scoring position, Wellbrock struck out Tyler Duplantis to end the inning.

After Houston added two insurance runs in the eighth, Frazier singled with two outs in the Colonels' final at-bat. However, Wellbrock notched his fifth strikeout to earn the save.

For the Colonels, Stuart Holmes pitched two-plus innings of relief and allowed one earned on three hits. Holmes struck out four batters as the Colonel staff combined for 11 in the game, with John Satriano adding one in 0.2 innings of work.

Nicholls and Houston will play game two of the series tomorrow night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.