THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team will travel to Mobile and face South Alabama after a successful weekend, in which they claimed sole possession of first place in the Southland Conference with a three-game sweep of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

The Colonels (13-12, 5-1 SLC) will look to continue their hot hitting streak and steady play on the mound against the Jaguars (12-10) at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Eddie Stanky Field.  The game will be broadcast live on KTIB 640 AM.

Nicholls has steadily improved its batting average over the course of the season and continued to rise against Lamar, led by Keith Cormier, David Zorn and Leo Vargas.  Cormier lead the team in both hits and batting average against Lamar, batting .583 with seven hits and two RBIs.  David Zorn carried a .455 average against the Cardinals while leading the team in RBIs with five and scoring one run on five hits.  Leo Vargas scored two runs of his own with four hits in the series.

The Colonels' batting average is on the rise, but their stifling pitching unit has been dominant all season and Nicholls is now leading the conference in both opponent ERA at 2.52 and strikeouts at 209 (A&M Corpus-Christi is second with 189).  Taylor Byrd (4-1) is spearheading the Colonel pitching squad, leading both the team and the conference in strikeouts with 42, and carrying a team-leading .91 ERA (second in conference).

Taking the mound on Tuesday against the Jaguars is righty Ryan Deemes (1-2) who is making his fifth start of the season, and looking to bounce back from a tough outing against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

Pitching for South Alabama is right-hander Matt Bell, making his first appearance of the season.  In his only game against Nicholls last year, Bell threw a career high, nine strikeouts.

The Jaguars are coming off of a 10-0 loss to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in which they had just two hits.

Following the game against South Alabama, the Colonels will return home for a three-game series against Oral Roberts, beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday at Ray E. Didier Field.