NATCHITOCHES, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team tallied a season-high 14 hits and starting pitcher
Cayden Hatcher put together six solid innings as the Colonels evened the series against Northwestern State with a 9-1 victory Saturday afternoon.
Nicholls (8-6, 1-1 SLC) never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning. After scoring in the fifth, the Colonels blew open the game with a four-run sixth, fueled by 2-run singles from
Gage Teer and
Gavin Wehby. In the next inning,
Troy Cahill capped the offensive outburst with a 2-run home run to make the score 9-0.
Northwestern State (5-9, 1-1 SLC) was finally able to score on Hatcher as he allowed a solo shot in the seventh, but the Demons were held to a lone hit the rest of the way.
Hatcher (1-0) went 6.0 innings, allowing four hits and struck out four. He cruised through the first five frames, allowing only a two-out double in the second.
While the 14 hits was a season-best, it marked the third consecutive game and fourth out of the last five that the Colonels (8-6, 1-1 SLC) have recorded double figures in hits. A total of five players had multi-hit games, including Teer, Cahill, Wehby and
Lee Clark who had two RBIs apiece.
Ethan Valdez had two hits as well, giving him three straight games with a hit.
In the third, Nicholls scored the first run on a groundout by Lee before
Justin Holt singled to make it 2-0. The base hit extended Holt's on-base streak to eight, with
Chet Niehaus leading the team with a current nine-game streak.
The Colonels pushed the lead to 3-0 in the fifth with a pair of two-out hits. Teer doubled down the left field line and Clark followed with a single for the RBI.
In the sixth, Nicholls used four hits to score four runs. Cahill's homer in the seventh was the second on the season for the junior from Bentonville, Arkansas.
The Colonel bullpen was dominant for the second straight outing, allowing one hit in three innings.
Alex Ernestine,
Daniel Goff and
Hunter Speer all tossed an inning, with Ernestine and Speer fanning two each.
John Carter Sanner (1-1) took the loss for NSU, allowing six earned runs on 10 hits in 5.2 innings. Matthew Alford had the lone RBI on his solo home run.
UP NEXT
The Colonels and Demons will play the rubber match on Sunday at 1 p.m.