HAMMOND, La. - For the second night in a row, Hammond native
Basiel Williams delivered a clutch home run in the ninth inning as the No. 2 Nicholls State University baseball team defeated No. 6 Southeastern, 4-3, on a walk-off homer Friday night on Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field in the Southland Conference Tournament.
After Nicholls (37-20) led 1-0 through six innings thanks to an
Edgar Alvarez solo homer in the third, Southeastern (30-28) rallied for two runs in the seventh before Williams doubled in the tying run in the bottom half.
Gerardo Villarreall then gave the Colonels a brief 3-2 lead in the eight with a two-out RBI single.
The Colonels were unable to keep the lead in the ninth but Williams led off in the bottom half and crushed the first pitch he saw off of Lance Lauve over the right center wall, sending the Red and Gray to Saturday night's title game.
The championship game will be a winner-take-all matchup at 6 p.m. Nicholls will take on the winner of the 1 p.m. game between No. 1 Lamar and No. 5 McNeese.
Nicholls doubled up Southeastern in hits, 10-5, with Williams,
Garrett Felix and
Drake Anderson finishing with two each. A big reason for the limited Lion offense was senior
Devin Desandro's solid six-plus innings as he allowed just one run on four hits and struck out five.
Nicholls flashed some defense early, turning a double play in the first to erase a leadoff base hit. Then in the following inning, Anderson had a diving stop and throwout at second before
Narvin Booker Jr. robbed a single with a sliding catch in center.
With two down in the third, Alvarez left the yard for his team-high 12th home run of the season, banging the shot off the back wall in right center. Nicholls put two more runners on but both were left stranded. The Colonels left 13 runners on base for the game.
Anderson singled and
MaCrae Kendrick walked to lead off the fourth, but once again Nicholls could not add to its lead. Then in the sixth, Anderson singled for the second time before
Kaden Amundson doubled.
Parker Coddou drew a two-out walk to fill the bags, but Larson Fabre got out of the jam with a strikeout of Alvarez.
Desandro gave up his final hit with one out in the seventh, and
Chase Richter took over on the mound. Two walks and a hit-by-pitch evened the score at one, and
Gavin Galy came in and retired the next two, but the first out resulted in a sacrifice fly and a 2-1 Lion lead.
In the Colonel seventh, Felix doubled with one out and scored when Williams hit his double off the wall in left center. Williams moved to third on a wild pitch but two strikeouts kept the score at 2-2.
After Galy allowed just a two-out single in the top of the eighth, Nicholls pieced together a two-out rally to take the lead Coddou roped a double to left center and SLU elected to intentionally walk Alvarez. Facing a full count, Villarreal dropped a base hit down the right field line, putting Nicholls up 3-2.
Southeastern tied the game in ninth after taking advantage of several Colonel miscues. Galy walked the leadoff batter and then with one down, Amundson was called for a catcher's interference to put two on.
Arturo Rodriguez came in from the pen to try to notch a save, but he hit two straight batters to drive in a run. However with the bags still full, he struck out Shea Thomas to keep the score at 3-3.
Williams' heroic home run was the eighth of the season. The senior continued his power surge after entering his final campaign with three career long balls.
With 37 victories, Nicholls has won the most games in a season since the team's 44 wins in 1989.
