HOUSTON – The Nicholls State University baseball team made a big splash with its first victory of the young season as the Colonels avenged their opening-day loss to Wake Forest with a 12-5 victory Saturday afternoon. Nicholls took on No. 20 Houston in the night cap and came up short, falling 5-3 to the Cougars.
Game 1 – Nicholls 12, Wake Forest 5
After falling behind 3-0, the Colonels exploded for a total of eight runs in the fourth and fifth innings as Nicholls handed ACC member Wake Forest a 12-5 loss.
Nicholls cranked out 12 hits against the Wake Forest, highlighted by three-hit days from
Gage Teer and
Alex Tucker.
Ethan Valdez homered and drove in three, and Tucker chipped in with three RBIs.
In the fourth, Teer got things started with an RBI double down the left field line. After a sac fly made it 3-2, Tucker singled to center to knot the game at 3-all. An error kept the inning alive and Nicholls took advantage as
Justin Holt delivered a 2-run single for a 5-3 lead.
Wake answered with a run in the fifth, but Teer got the run back in the bottom half on an RBI base hit. Nicholls pushed its lead to 8-4 on a Tucker double and another sac fly.
Ethan Valdez added a 2-run homer to extend the Nicholls lead to 10-4 in the seventh. A solo shot by Wake Forest cut the deficit in half, but the Colonels tacked on two insurance runs in the eighth to make the final.
Daniel Goff (1-0) picked up the win for the Colonels, allowing one earned run in four innings of relief. Morgan McSweeney was handed the loss after surrendering two earned in 0.2 innings.
Game 2 – Houston 5, Nicholls 3
Like the first game, Nicholls struck big in the middle innings by scoring two in the third and one in the fourth to grab the lead over No. 20th ranked Houston, but the Cougars immediately answered back with two runs in the next two frames to pick up a 5-3 victory.
Nicholls had eight hits in the loss, led by a 3-for-4 outing by
Kyle Knauth. Leftfielder
Lee Clark also had a solid night, finishing 2-for-3.
Cayden Hatcher took the loss, allowing five earned on nine hits in 4.1 innings. The bullpen did an outstanding job on keeping the Colonels in the game, surrendering no runs on four hits.
Mitch Ollom lasted seven innings for Houston, striking out five and allowed two earned runs on seven hits. Joey Pulido picked up the save after allowing a hit in 2.0 innings.
Trailing 1-0 in the third, Nicholls tagged Ollom for four hits to take a 2-1 lead. Knauth tied the game on a bases loaded single and an error allowed a second run to come home.
The Colonels used a solo shot by
Troy Cahill to push their lead to 3-1, but the Cougars plated two in the bottom half on a triple by Conner Hollis to even the game.
In the fifth, the Cougars received another extra-base hit – a 2-run double by Jake Scheiner, to grab the lead for good. Nicholls was retired in order in three of the final five innings.
ON DECK
The Colonels will welcome instate rival No. 13 Louisiana-Lafayette for their home opener Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.
