THIBODAUX, La.  – The Nicholls State University baseball team will open conference play against Houston Baptist this weekend, hosting the Huskies for a three-game series with game one scheduled for Friday night at Ray E. Didier Field at 6 p.m.

All three games will be broadcast live on the airways, with KNSU 91.5 FM carrying Friday night's opener, and KTIB 640 AM will air Saturday and Sunday's games. A live video stream is also available on geauxcolonels.com.

Nicholls enters conference play with an 8-9 record after coming up short at No. 3 LSU on Tuesday night, 5-3. Despite outhitting the Tigers 8-5, two errors by the Colonels led to two unearned. Darius Knight led Nicholls at the plate with three hits, while Tyler Duplantis and Philip Lyons had two each.

Lyons is one of two Colonels batting over .300, sitting at .301. After his big series against BYU where he was named LSWA Hitter of the Week, Keith Cormier leads Nicholls with a .303 average and is tied with Duplantis with 11 RBIs.

The Colonel pitching staff heads into the series with a 2.18 ERA. Leading the way so far is Friday's starter Taylor Byrd, who is 2-1 with a 0.68 ERA in four starts. Byrd struck out nine in his last outing and leads the team with 33 Ks on the year. Borne (2-1, 3.20 ERA) is coming off a career-outing after fanning 11 in his win over BYU. Deemes (1-1, 3.44) earned a no-decision in his last start, pitching 5.1 innings with four earned runs on six hits against BYU.

Houston Baptist (8-5) comes to Thibodaux with an 8-5 record after defeating Prairie View A&M on Tuesday, 12-4. The Huskies cranked out 20 hits in the victory, led by a 4-for-5 day by Bradley Brown.

Brown is one of four hitters with a .300 or better average, ranking second on the team at .333. Curtis Jones leads HBU with at .375, Zach Nehrir has a .321 average and a team-high 10 RBIs, and Josh Martinez is at .304.

The Huskies are scheduled to throw Taylor Wright (2-1, 7.47) Ryan Lower (2-0, 1.89) and Curtis Jones (1-1, 3.22). Jones has a team-high 12 strikeouts, and Lower and Wright have 11 each.