SAN ANTONIO, Texas - For the second time in as many days, the Nicholls State University baseball team rallied back from an early deficit as the Colonels took the series at UIW with a 10-7 win on Sunday afternoon at Sullivan Field.
Nicholls fell behind 6-0 after just two innings but went on to score in four consecutive frames. The Colonels went up 8-7 in the fifth and
Devin Desandro took care of the rest, tossing 6.2 innings out of the bullpen for the victory. It marked the second straight impressive outing out of the pen as
Nico Saltaformaggio went seven-plus in Saturday's win.
With the victory, Nicholls (30-17, 12-6 SLC) won all four of its road Southland series with an 11-1 record and will finish out league play at home against first-place Lamar and McNeese. The LU Cardinals come to Thibodaux next weekend with a 2.0 game lead over the Colonels.
Nicholls outhit UIW in the win, 12-10, with eight Colonels logging at least one hit.
Basiel Williams led the way with a 3-for-4 day, while
Edgar Alvarez and
Garrett Felix each had two hits.
The Cardinals jumped all over starting pitcher
Michael Quevedo, plating four runs in the first with the help of a pair of RBI doubles. Then in the second, Dalton Beck left the yard with a two-run homer for the early 6-0 advantage.
But Nicholls put up its own four-spot in the third. UIW starter Micah Berens walked the bases loaded and Felix cleared the bases with a double in the left-center gap. Williams capped the inning with an RBI single.
In the fourth,
Cade Crosby doubled to lead off the inning and scored on a single by
Narvin Booker Jr. Parker Coddou then took a 2-0 pitch down the right-field line for his third homer of the season and a 7-6 Colonel lead.
The lone run allowed by Desandro scored in the fourth after a leadoff Colonel error. But Nicholls retook the lead in the fifth when Booker Jr. drove in Williams on a groundout. Williams led off the inning by reaching on a hit-by-pitch.
Williams then added a run in the sixth on an RBI double before a wild pitch in the eighth pushed across the final run for the Colonels.
UIW threatened in the sixth and seventh innings but Desandro was able to keep them off the board both times. Cameron Caley hit a one-out triple in the sixth but was left stranded, then in the next frame, Desandro worked around a leadoff double by JD Gregson. He struck out the next two batters before forcing a groundout to end the inning.
In the final two innings, Desandro only allowed a two-out single in the eighth by Caley which was his fifth hit of the game.
ON DECK
Nicholls will finish its Texas road trip with a Tuesday night game against Houston. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
