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THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team bested Mississippi State 7-4 Tuesday night on Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray E. Didier Field, marking the program's first win over the Bulldogs in 10 games spanning 54 years.
This marked Nicholls' first win over an SEC opponent since Feb. 18, 2015, a 6-3 triumph over LSU in Baton Rouge.
"I just want our guys to be the team they're supposed to be," Nicholls head coach
Seth Thibodeaux said. "I want our guys to overachieve and make the plays they're capable of making – like we played defense tonight. It's really not a shock to me – you know the way we played. I expect that out of our guys and I want them to expect the same."
The Colonels (9-15) received two RBIs from seniors
Lee Clark and
Kyle Knauth. Fellow senior
Gage Teer totaled two hits. Sophomore lefty
Bryan Taylor (2-3) picked up the win, allowing one hit in three innings of work. Graduate student Christian Bollinger and redshirt sophomore
Austin Bollinger combined for 3.1 scoreless innings.
Nicholls handed Denver McQuary his first loss of the season. Marshall Gilbert and Jordan Westburg contributed two RBIs apiece for the Bulldogs (13-13).
The Colonels scored their first two runs in the third inning on two Mississippi State throwing errors. Teer and Knauth stroked back-to-back doubles in the sixth with Knauth's two-bagger driving home Teer and senior
Chet Niehaus, increasing the margin to 4-0. Teer widened the gap even further in the seventh on a sacrifice fly.
After two walks to commence the eighth, the Bulldogs used three hits, highlighted by Westburg's single and Gilbert's double, to tally four runs. In the bottom half of the frame, however, Clark stroked a two-run homer down the right-field line that gave Nicholls a three-run cushion at 7-4.
Senior southpaw
Jarred Scott made quick work of Mississippi State in the ninth, needing just 12 pitches to retire the side and preserve the win.
"The first three [innings],
Bryan Taylor really kind of settled in there and he's slowly getting back to where he's supposed to be," Thibodeaux said. "We weathered the storm pretty good.
Jarred Scott made some good pitches there and got a couple of jam shots. One of them fell through and they got a couple runs but it was a big blow at the end with
Lee Clark being able to do what he did. It really settled
Jarred Scott in, and he was able to get the final three [outs] and finish the job."
Nicholls travels to Tucson, Arizona, to face the University of Arizona in a three-game set beginning Thursday. The Colonels then travel to Baton Rouge on Tuesday to face LSU.
Get your season or single-game tickets now by calling
985-448-4790 or visiting
nichollstickets.com. Please click
here for more information on joining the 2018 Nicholls Baseball Coaches Committee. Visit
geauxcolonels.com for the most up-to-date information on Nicholls baseball. Be sure to follow the team on Twitter
@Nicholls_BASE.
