Final Stats BATON ROUGE, La – The Nicholls State University baseball team outhit No. 3 LSU eight to five, but two unearned runs for the Tigers proved to be the difference as the Colonels were defeated 5-3 Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium.

Nicholls (8-9) was led at the plate by senior third baseman Tyler Duplantis, who was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and Darius Knight with three hits and two runs. Duplantis started things early for the Colonels, driving in Philip Lyons, who also had two hits, on a RBI single up the middle in the first.

Mike Hanchar (0-1) took the loss despite five solid innings on the bump against the high-powered LSU offense. Hanchar surrendered only two hits, allowing three runs with two being earned.

After being down 1-0 following Duplantis' RBI single, LSU took advantage of a Leo Vargas error in the bottom half to even the game, scoring a run on a sacrifice fly. The Tigers then tagged Hanchar for two hits in the second to take a 3-1 lead. Jared Foster drove in the first run on a double to right, and Danny Zardon brought him home on a groundout to third.

The Colonels got one back in the third after leadoff singles by Knight and Lyons led to another RBI by Duplantis. Vargas moved the runners over on a sac bunt, and Duplantis grounded out to the pitcher as Knight came across the plate. But with the tying run on third, Brady Domangue (2-0) got Keith Comier to pop up to third to end the inning.

The pitchers for both teams took over the next three innings, putting zeros on the board into the seventh. But in the bottom half, Colonel reliever Cole Stapler hit a batter and allowed a runner to reach on an error, setting up two more runs for the Tigers. Stuart Holmes gave up a RBI single to Sean McMullen to extend the lead to two, and Alex Bregman then singled to center off of John Santriano to make the score 5-2.

In the eight, Knight led off the frame with his third hit, and came in to score on a Vargas single to left. But in the ninth, Joe Broussard retired the Colonels in order to notch his third save of the season.

Nicholls will open conference play this weekend at Ray E. Didier Field, hosting Houston Baptist for a three-game series. Friday night's opener is scheduled for 6 p.m.