ABILENE, Texas -- Despite composing a valiant effort across the entirety of the twin bill, the Nicholls State University baseball program (8-10, 5-2 SLC) failed to stave off back-to-back defeats during Saturday's doubleheader at Abilene Christian (12-6, 4-3 SLC), initially falling by a 4-1 margin before suffering a 6-5 walk-off loss at Crutcher Scott Field in Abilene, Texas.

After struggling offensively in the first matchup of the day (just one run scored during the shortened seven-inning contest), the Colonels seemed to turn a corner right off the bat in the bottom half of the twin bill, rocketing out to a four-run advantage through the first frame. The Wildcats managed to respond, however, with five of their own to wrap up the second, maintaining that edge till an error in the eighth helped Nicholls tie up the game. A troublesome start to the ninth proved the Red & Gray's downfall, though, as Abilene Christian clinched the eventual 6-5 victory behind a ground-rule RBI double.
 
KEY STORYLINES & STATISTICS
-- With the pair of losses, the Colonels drop down to 8-10 overall for the year and collect their first Southland defeats of the season, sitting now at 5-2; meanwhile, Abilene Christian improves up to a 12-6 mark along with a 4-3 record in league competition.
-- Senior Trever Kilcrease (0-2) collected his second loss of the season on a decent 5.2 innings of work in first game of the day, surrendering four runs on seven hits while setting down three on strikes. The second contest saw the roughest start freshman Devin Desandro's young career, as the right-hander gave up five runs on five hits through just 1.1 frames on the mound. Fortunately, sophomore Tyler Theriot took over in relief, pushing through 5.2 innings himself, before junior Cade Evans (0-1) earned the eventual loss, tossing a full frame with one run allowed on no hits.
-- The only run of the Saturday opener came off the bat of senior Alex Galy, who sent Parker Coddou home via a long groundout to second. The slow start quickly evaporated come the second game, as a two-RBI double from freshman transfer Wes Toups along with a pair of solo RBIs from sophomore Austin Cain and redshirt junior Justin Ory lifted the Colonels to an early advantage. Later, near the close of the eighth frame, Coddou notched a fortunate reach-on-error as the ACU left fielder dropped a two-out fly ball, allowing pinch runner Caleb Hill to cross home plate for a 5-5 tie.
 
UP NEXT
With a majority of the series concluded, the Colonels set their sights on knotting up the four-game road stretch with a victory on Sunday, facing off against the Wildcats for the final time of the regular season at 2 p.m.

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