Final Stats Senior Day Photo Gallery

THIBODAUX, La. – Behind another quality start from sophomore Grant Borne and a three-run second inning that was highlighted by a Christian Correa home run, the Nicholls State University baseball team stayed alive in the Southland Conference title race with a 3-1 victory over McNeese State on Friday night at Ray E. Didier Field.
 
The Colonels (31-24, 20-9) head into the final day trailing first-place Sam Houston State by one game in the standings.  Nicholls will have to defeat McNeese State (28-25, 17-12) on Sunday, and needs Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to knock off the Bearkats in order to pull even for a share of the regular season championship.  Nicholls and McNeese close out the regular season on graduation Saturday, with first pitch at The Did scheduled for 1 p.m.
 
For the game, Borne threw 7.1 innings for the win to improve his record to 8-2 on the year. The left-hander surrendered one earned run on five hits, struck out five and walked one.
 
After retiring McNeese in order in the first two innings, Borne got more than enough run support in the bottom of the second as the Colonels had four of their eight hits on the night. Correa started the scoring with a one-out bomb to left field, which was his first home run of the season. The junior is only the second Colonel to hit one out of The Did this season, joining Keith Cormier who has two long balls at home.
 
Charles Morton followed with a single up the middle and Tyler Duplantis pushed him to third on a base hit to center. David Zorn made the score 2-0 with a sacrifice fly before Darius Knight ripped a ball down the third-base line past a diving Reed Gordy, plating Duplantis on a run-scoring double.
 
In the third, McNeese put together back-to-back one-out singles, but Borne got out of the jam with a 4-6-3 double play. The Colonels turned two double plays on the day, adding to their NCAA-leading total of 64.
 
The Cowboys chipped away at the deficit in the fifth after a leadoff double by Gordy led to a run. Clay Payne singled up the middle, scoring Gordy from second base. The Colonels looked to have a chance to throw him out, but Knight's heave from center bounced off the pitcher's mound, putting the score at 3-1.
 
Borne sat the Cowboys down in order in the sixth and gave up a two-out double in the seventh before fanning Payne to end the frame. With one out in the eighth, Borne's night came to an end as John Satriano came in to pitch. After a walk, Satriano forced Andrew Guillotte into another groundout double play to end the inning.
 
In the ninth, closer Marc Picciola allowed a leadoff single but came back to retire the next three batters for his seventh save of the season.
 
Bryce Kingsley (5-4) took the loss, pitching five innings with three earned runs on four hits and struck out three. Tyler Erickson and Cory LaPeze combined for three shutout innings out of the bullpen.