Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team scored four runs in the eighth inning to pick up a series-finale sweep over rival McNeese State, defeating the Cowboys 5-2 on Saturday at Ray E. Didier Field.
 
The Colonels finish the regular season with a 32-24 record and a 21-9 mark in conference. With Sam Houston's victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the Bearkats claim the regular season title outright, and the Colonels finish second and will be the No. 2 seed in next week's Southland Conference Tournament. Nicholls will square off against McNeese State (28-26, 17-13) for the fourth straight game as the Cowboys earned the No. 7 seed. First pitch in Conway, Ark. is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
 
Nicholls finished with 10 hits in the win, getting four in the decisive eighth inning. With the game deadlocked at 1-1 after seven-and-half innings, the Colonels pulled away for a 5-1 lead. Seth Stevens led off with a double off to right, and Christian Correa followed with a bunt single. Senior Tyler Duplantis then capped off his outstanding Didier finale with a run-scoring double to left center to give Nicholls a 2-1 lead. Duplantis finished the day 4-for-4 with a run scored and ended the season with an 18-game on-base streak.
 
The Colonels pushed the lead to 3-1 on a bases loaded walk by Darius Knight, then added one more when Philips Lyons beat out a double play attempt at first. Senior Leo Vargas tacked on an insurance run with a base hit through the left side, giving Nicholls a 5-1 cushion.
 
Closer Marc Picciola pitched in the ninth, allowing one run on one hit to make the final, 5-2.
 
Senior Brandon Jackson tossed six solid innings, giving up just a lone unearned run in the first inning. A Vargas error to start the game led to a Reed Gordy RBI single to center to give the Cowboys an early 1-0 advantage. Jackson surrendered six hits in the no-decision, striking out six with one walk.
 
Nicholls cracked the scoring column in the third, tying the game at 1-1. Vargas laid down a perfect bunt for a single, and Stevens recorded his first double of the day to plate Vargas. Stevens and Vargas both had two hits and one RBI on the day.
 
Marc Frazier kept the score knotted at 1-1, throwing two shutout innings out of the bullpen. In the seventh and eighth, the Cowboys put a runner in scoring position but could not take the lead.
 
Steven O'Bryant (3-5) was tagged with the loss for McNeese, giving up four earned in the eighth with one strikeout and two walks. Cole Prejean started on the bump, lasting four innings with five hits and three walks. At the plate, Andrew Guillotte, Chayse Marion and Reed Gordy all recorded two hits each.