Final Stats San Antonio, TX – The Nicholls State University baseball team was its own worst enemy on Thursday night, as the Colonels committed three errors in a 6-2 loss to the University of the Incarnate Word at rainy Sullivan Field.
 
Only one of the Cardinals' runs was earned, and designated hitter Jesse Hoover made Nicholls pay dearly for its last mistake, belting a grand slam in the seventh to provide the winning margin in the first-ever meeting between the new league foes.
 
Nicholls (19-20, 10-6 SLC) junior righthander Ryan Deemes made the most of his first Southland Conference start, going five innings while surrendering an unearned run on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts. UIW (12-22, 4-6 SLC) righty Geno Encina stole the show, though, recording his second complete game victory in two weeks, yielding five hits with one free pass and seven punchouts to improve his record to 5-5.
 
Nicholls drew first blood, striking for a run in the second inning as Charles Morton led off with a double, followed by a Tyler Duplantis sacrifice bunt and a David Zorn sacrifice fly.
 
Incarnate Word replied in the third when Bryan Shepard reached on a Duplantis error at third and scored on a two-out triple to leftcenter by Mark Whitehead.
 
Morton threw out Colton Besset in the fourth as the Cardinal catcher attempted to score on a two-out hit by Jason Stone and the Colonels would go on to reclaim the lead in the fifth when Zorn led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Justin Holt's grounder to second base.
 
The Cardinals evened things up again in the sixth, as Brown reached on a base hit up the middle against lefty reliever Stuart Holmes, then advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Subsequently, Nicholls got a bad bounce – literally – when Stone's two-out groundball ricocheted off third base, skipping over the head of Duplantis and down the leftfield line, allowing Brown to come around.
 
Encina was masterful down the stretch, retiring 15 of the final 17 batters he faced. UIW would give him the lead in the seventh, when John Satriano walked the leadoff batter, Dustin Cole. Bryce Shepherd then looked to bunt him over and the throw from catcher Christian Correa was in time to get Shepherd. But, after holding the ball for a moment, it popped out of Zorn's glove. Following an initial hesitation, first base umpire Doug McClure ruled Shepherd safe and trouble starting brewing. Satriano walked Whitehead to load the bases before an Aaron Warren fielder's choice forced Cole at the plate. Brown's sharp line drive was snagged by a diving Leo Vargas at shortshop, and it looked as if Nicholls might emerge unscathed after all.
 
Hoover had other ideas. He hacked at the first pitch he saw and drop it over the rightfield fence for a grand slam. It was only the second home run all season for UIW, both of which belong to Hoover.
 
Nicholls' rightfielder Keith Cormier registered a pair of hits while Brown, Besett and Stone each recorded two hits for the Cardinals.
 
Satriano suffered the loss, dropping his record to 2-2 after allowing four unearned runs on two hits and a couple of walks in his lone inning of work.
 
The three-game set continues Friday at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast live on KTIB 640 AM.