THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team swept the University of Central Arkansas for the first time in program history, winning the series finale 4-0 Sunday at Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray E. Didier Field.
The Colonels (26-30, 14-16 SLC) needed to win all three games to get into the Southland Conference tournament. Nicholls will enter the field as the 7-seed and faces No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana at noon on Wednesday in Sugar Land, Texas. This will be the first tournament appearance for the Red and Gray since 2015.
Nicholls, Corpus Christi and UNO all finished with a 14-16 league record by the end of the day, but the Colonels jumped both teams due to its 3-0 record over UCA.
"I'm really proud of our team," Nicholls head baseball coach
Seth Thibodeaux said. "We had to earn it the hard way by sweeping a very good UCA team with our backs against the wall. It's good to be back in Sugar Land and our players are very hungry for the postseason."
Junior starting pitcher
Jacob Bedevian (3-6) recorded Nicholls' second complete-game shutout in as many days, scattering six hits and a walk while recording five strikeouts. The Colonels pitching staff finished the weekend with 24 consecutive scoreless innings and put up zeroes in 25 of 27 innings in the series.
While Bedevian was cruising, Nicholls' offense pieced together four runs. Freshman
Xane Washington and redshirt junior
Brady Bell plated the first two in the fourth on a groundout and single, respectively. Senior
Ethan Valdez stroked a double to right field to commence the fifth and was later plated by a single from fellow senior
Kyle Knauth. Washington led off the sixth with a double like Valdez's, and senior
Gage Teer brought him home on a triple to left-center field that fell just beyond a diving Keaton Presley.
Bedevian allowed just one runner to reach scoring position. The Houston native retired the final eight batters on the contest.
The Bears (32-23, 17-13 SLC) dropped from third to fifth in the conference standings. UCA was led offensively by William Hancock's two hits. Mark Moyer (5-6) was the losing pitcher, surrendering two runs on four hits and three walks through four innings. He also totaled three strikeouts.
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