THIBODAUX, La. - After leading 8-3 through six innings, the Nicholls State University baseball team allowed seven unanswered runs as South Alabama rallied for a 10-8 victory in 10 innings on Wednesday night at Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray E. Didier Field.
South Alabama (10-15) scored three runs in the seventh before tying the game in the eighth with two more. In the extra frame, the Jaguars used a hit and an error to plate the go-ahead run and added another insurance run on Trey Lewis' second double of the night.
The Colonels were retired in order in the bottom half as USA swept the two-game season series.
Nicholls totaled 12 hits in the contest with
Parker Coddou (2 hits),
Xane Washington (4) and
Edgar Alvarez (3) making up 3/4 of the offense.
MaCrae Kendrick added a solo home run.
The Colonel pitching staff had to go deep into the bullpen, using a total of nine pitchers.
Michael Quevedo started the game and after adding two innings to his hitless stretch, left the game in the fifth with a 6-2 lead. Each reliever allowed at least one hit, with the exception of
Devin Desandro who recorded the last two outs after USA took the 10-8 lead in the 10th.
South Alabama had its own struggle on the mound as Tyler Smith did not make it out of the first inning. The Colonels tagged him for three hits including two doubles right out the gate, scoring on an Alvarez double.
Garrett Felix made it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly.
After USA scored in the third, the Colonels pieced together a four-run fourth. Kendrick started the inning with his solo shot and Washington followed with a 2-run single to left. Alvarez then drove in a run with a triple to right for a 6-1 Colonel lead.
In the fifth, an RBI single by Will Turner resulted in Quevedo exiting the game. But the Jaguars added another run on Lewis' first double of the night.
Nicholls loaded the bases with one out in the sixth and plated two more runs for the 8-3 advantage.
Austin Cain drove in a run on a sacrifice fly and
Gerardo Villarreal chipped in with an RBI single. But it would be the final runs for the Colonels.
South Alabama scored three in the seventh via a Colson Lawrence home run. Then in the eighth, tied the game on a 2-run single off the bat of Joseph Sullivan. The second run scored after Washington fired a rocket from right field but Erick Orbeta just beat the tag at the plate.
With the game knotted at 8-8, the Colonels were 90 feet away from ending the game in the ninth. The leadoff batters reached on a walk and hit-by-pitch and
Kaden Amundson laid down a sacrifice bunt. But the Jaguars' Grant Wood forced a soft liner to second before getting a strikeout to escape the inning.
The tiebreaker rule came into play in the 10th and each team started the inning with a runner on second. USA had two hits and took advantage of two Colonel errors while Nicholls was unable to move the runner off of second base.
Arturo Rodriguez suffered the loss with 2.0 innings out of the bullpen. He allowed one earned run on one hit.
South Alabama finished with 16 hits with JG Bell leading the way with four.
ON DECK
Nicholls will head to Lamar for a three-game series, starting with a 6 p.m. contest on Friday, March 31.
