THIBODAUX, La. -- Bolstered by an ace performance from the pitching staff, the Nicholls State University baseball program (2-2, 0-0 SLC) managed to fight back to .500 on the season behind a successful double-comeback effort against visiting Youngstown State (1-4, 0-0 Horizon), ousting the Penguins by a tight 7-6 margin behind some late heroics Friday afternoon at Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray E. Didier Field.

Notably, the Colonels displayed consistent resiliency following each of Youngstown State's scoring innings, immediately regrouping in the bottom of both frames for enough runs to recapture a lead. For example, after the Penguins leapt out to a 2-0 advantage in the third inning off back-to-back RBI hit-by-pitches, the Red & Gray offense sprang into action, knotting the score on an RBIs from Wes Toups and Dane Simon before surging to a three-run edge behind a right-field bomb off the bat of Basiel Williams, good for his first of the year.

KEY STORYLINES & STATISTICS
-- With the victory, the Colonels improve back to .500 with a 2-2 record while Youngstown State falls to a 1-4 mark.
-- While sophomore RHP Chase Gearing put together a solid 5.0 innings of work in his second start of the season -- punched out two with a pair of runs surrendered on five hits -- freshman RHP Devin Desandro once again stole the show out of the pen, sealing the first win of his young career with four strikeouts and just one hit allowed across 2.0 frames on the rubber. Meanwhile, junior LHP Joe Taylor stepped in for the entirety of the ninth, notching his first save of the year -- sixth donning the Red & Gray -- behind back-to-back strikeouts followed by a harmless flyout.
-- Offensively, Williams' third-inning homer may serve as the most engrossing highlight of the day, but the admittedly anticlimactic game-winning runs came courtesy of Toups and sophomore Mason Turner, who picked up consecutive RBI walks midway through the sixth to push Nicholls back in front. For Toups, the local product recorded his second multi-RBI contest of the year after kicking off the 2021 campaign with a pair in the season opener against Eastern Illinois.
 
UP NEXT
With the weekend already off to a positive start, the Colonels set their sights on a major upset on Saturday evening, traveling north to Baton Rouge for a clash with No. 11 LSU at Alex Box Stadium, first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m.

STAY SOCIAL
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