Baseball: Feb. 18 Scoreboard
Nicholls 6, No. 4 LSU 3
New Orleans 7, Southern Miss 6
Louisiana Tech 12, McNeese State 2
La.-Lafayette 7, Northwestern State 3
Tulane 5, Southeastern La. 4
Nicholls 6, No. 4 LSU 3
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team won their opening-weekend series against American East favorite Stony Brook, but that performance was just the opening act for the Colonels who defeated No. 4 Louisiana State University, 6-3 on their home field at Alex Box Stadium on Wednesday night.
Nicholls (3-1) jumped on top early with a
Justin Holt leadoff single. With two outs,
Seth Stevens crushed a double to deep left field, bringing Holt home. The Tigers (3-1) responded, loading the bases, but the Colonels escaped the inning unscathed.
In the third inning,
Joey Morales and
Darius Knight singled before a
Christian Correa sacrifice fly sent the pair home to give Nicholls a 3-0 advantage.
In the fourth frame,
Marc Frazier led off with a double through the left side and came home on a hit by
Tanner Vandevere that put the Colonels up by four.
With two outs in the fifth, Correa was hit by a pitch, forcing a pitching substitution. Immediately after the change, Stevens blasted a triple to right field that brought Correa in for the score. A Frazier single on the next at bat sent Stevens home and gave Nicholls a 6-0 lead.
LSU provided a scare in the sixth, taking advantage of miscues by the Colonels to cut their lead in half. Mark Laird singled to center and advanced to third on consecutive wild pitches. Alex Bregman notched a single that sent Laird in for the score. Conner Hale and Andrew Stevenson added a pair of singles, resulting in two more runs for the Tigers.
The two teams held each other scoreless over the remaining innings and Nicholls came away with the victory over LSU.
The Tigers entered Wednesday's contest ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation by Baseball America, and were tabbed as the No. 4 team by the USA Today Coaches' poll, Collegiate Baseball poll and NCBWA poll after their 3-0 sweep of Kansas on opening weekend.
Righty
Ryan Deemes got the start for the Colonels, tossing four scoreless innings with six strikeouts. Southpaw
Alex Ernestine (1-0) was awarded the win, throwing one inning and allowing just one hit while fanning one LSU batter. Lefty
Stuart Holmes earned his second save of the young season, shutting down the Tigers for no hits with a strikeout in 1.2 innings in relief.
Right-hander Doug Norman (0-1) took the loss for LSU, surrendering five runs (four earned) and nine hits in 4.2 innings.
Stevens led Nicholls offensively, going 2-for-5 with a double, triple, two RBIs and a run scored. Frazier went 2-for-4 on the night with an RBI and a run, while Correa batted 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. The Colonels registered 12 hits on the night with nine different players contributing at least one hit.
Laird paced the Tigers with a 3-for-6 night and a run. Bregman and Hale each notched an RBI and a run on the night, while Stevenson contributed the third RBI.
Nicholls will next travel to Pensacola Florida to take on North Florida, Southern Miss and Troy in the Diamond Cox Invitational. The Colonels will face the Ospreys at 11 a.m. on Friday to open the tournament. All three games will be broadcast live on KNSU 91.5 FM, and Saturday's matchup with the Golden Eagles will air on Cox Sports Television.
- Return to Top-
New Orleans 7, Southern Miss 6
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The New Orleans Privateers baseball team (1-3) got production throughout the lineup and a three-inning save from Jarred Taylor in a 7-6 win over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (3-1) on Wednesday at Pete Taylor Park.
In his second inning of relief, Taylor got a strikeout of Connor Barron with the tying run 90 feet away in the eighth. In the final frame, Taylor allowed a two-out shallow single, but retired the next batter in Breck Kline to preserve the win for New Orleans and polish off a three-out save.
“It was a great win. We’re swinging the bats and we’re doing what we need to do when we get guys on base. But the job Jarred did as a freshman against a very good ball club, it was a great win,” said Head Coach Ron Maestri.
A 4-4 tie was broken in the sixth off of reliever, Jake Winston in the sixth. The Privateers got a pair of base runners on an error and a hit batter. Both runners moved up on a ground ball out and Sam Carriere delivered a single up the middle to break the tie in the Privateers.
New Orleans added another run in the seventh, which wound up being the game winner. Hezekiah Randolph delivered his third hit of the night, then stole a base and got to third on a wild pitch. Randolph would later score on another wild pitch to push the lead to 7-4.
The Privateers didn’t take long to strike against freshman starter, Kirk McCarty. After a lead-off single by Jonathan Coco and a double from Jonathan Santana, the bases were loaded up on McCarty’s first walk issued.
With the bases full and one out, Chaz Boyer bounced one through the infield for a two-run single to put New Orleans on the board. Samuel Capielano followed with a single up the middle to make the score 3-0. Then Ryan Calloway laid down a drag bunt and a throwing error allowed a fourth run to cross.
Southern Miss responded with four two-out RBIs in the fourth. Ryan Ellis started the proceedings with a two-out RBI single. Tim Lynch parked a two-run homer over the right field fence to cut the Privateers lead to one. The lead was erased on an RBI single by Chuckie Robinson.
Randolph led the team with a three-hit night in four trips to the plate. Randolph also scored a run and stole a base. Jonathan Coco, Carriere, and Capielano each delivered two hits on the evening. Jordan Priddle was the first call out of the pen and picked up the win, throwing two shutout innings.
Southern Miss was led by Robinson who reached base three times including a pair of hits and a walk. Ryan Ellis had a pair of hits and an RBI. Luke Lowery took the loss, allowing two unearned runs. The Golden Eagles had eight strikeouts as a team on the game.
New Orleans will play their home debut in the first game of the MLB Urban Youth Invitational against Alcorn State. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
- Return to Top-
Louisiana Tech 12, McNeese State 2
LAKE CHARLES, La. – The McNeese State baseball team suffered its first defeat of the season Wednesday afternoon as the Cowboys were dominated by Louisiana Tech, 12-2 at Cowboy Diamond.
McNeese (4-1) used multiple-hit efforts from three different Cowboys during the contest as senior Andrew Guillotte, sophomore Matt Gallier and freshman Joe Provenzano each collected two hits. Gallier’s efforts were the most effective against the Bulldogs as he batted 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
Senior Cole Prejean (0-1) shut down the Louisiana Tech (1-4) bats during the first four innings limiting the Bulldogs to just two hits. However, the Bulldogs awoke in the latter part of Prejean’s outing and rattled his cage by dispensing three more hits, two walks and three runs.
Louisiana Tech’s Phil Maton received the win after a spectacular performance on the mound as he worked 7.0 innings and allowed just one run on four hits and a walk. Maton fanned out six batters in the process.
Guillotte continued to etch his name into the McNeese record books with his third swipe of the season in the first inning was enough that placed him into a tie for fifth place with Lee Orr on the all-time stolen base list with 59 total. Guillotte is only 19 swipes away for tying Jace Peterson for the all-time lead.
Muscle was shown early during the midweek showdown when Gallier launched a missile over the right field wall in the bottom of the second to help secure a 1-0 lead over the Bulldogs. The homer was Gallier’s second on the year and the Pokes’ fifth bomb of the season.
The lead would not last long as Louisiana Tech answered with a pair of RBIs in the top of the fifth inning to gain a 2-1 lead over McNeese. The Bulldogs tacked on three more runs in the next frame to take a four run advantage. The inning was highlighted by a lead off longshot from Bre’Shon Kimbell.
The opposition warmed up its bats in the top of the seventh inning as Louisiana Tech erupted for six runs, aided by a grand slam, to extend its lead by an 11 run count over the Cowboys.
McNeese managed to scrape across a run late in the game as Connor Crane’s left field double abled senior Guillotte to score and cut the lead to a 12-2 score.
The Cowboys will return to action over the weekend when it plays host to Bradley. The three-game series is slated to get underway on Friday at 6 p.m. following a neutral-site contest between visiting Southeast Missouri State and Illinois State.
Also collecting a hit for the Cowboys was senior Connor Lloyd and junior Lewis Guilbeau.
- Return to Top-
La.-Lafayette 7, Northwestern State 3
NATCHITOCHES, La. – After falling behind by four runs early Wednesday night, the Northwestern State baseball team had its chances to make the 2015 home opener a success.
The Demons, however, never could find the one big hit they needed and fell to UL Lafayette, 7-3, in their first game of the 2015 season at Brown-Stroud Field.
Northwestern State (1-4) fell behind 4-0, as the Cajuns pounced on Demons starter Austin Tanner (0-1) for four runs in the first inning.
Joe Robbins delivered the inning’s biggest hit, a two-run home run to center field that put the Cajuns (2-2) ahead 3-0. Tanner did not make it out of the first, lasting 2-3 of an inning, allowing four runs (all earned) on four hits with one walk and one strikeout.
Despite the early hole, the Demons began to chip away at the lead in the second inning when Joel Atkinson laced an RBI double into the left-field corner. Atkinson was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple and the umpires ruled Garrett Logan had not crossed the plate by the time Atkinson was tagged out.
Burroughs came out to argue the call and was ejected. Burroughs’ ejection, and the relief work of Josh Morris (3 1-3 scoreless innings) helped Northwestern State hang around.
Chase Daughdrill, who finished 2-for-3 with two extra-base hits, drilled his first home run of the season, a solo shot off Gunner Leger (1-0) in the fourth inning, to cut the Cajuns’ lead to 4-2.
Daughdrill later added a sixth-inning double for his second multi-hit game of the season.
After the Cajuns pushed their lead back to four with a two-run fifth inning, Hunter Duvic and Jordan Shaffer combined for three scoreless innings of relief to keep NSU within striking distance.
Aiding that cause was a highlight-reel catch by Nick Heath in right field. With one out in the Cajuns eight inning, Brenn Conrad drove a Shaffer pitch toward the right-field wall.
Heath retreated, timed his jump perfectly and robbed Conrad of a home run to keep the margin at three. Heath left the game with an injury after the play, but not before Conrad tipped his helmet to the catch.
The Demons built on that momentum by scoring a run in the eighth on a Cort Brinson RBI single. Brinson’s single put runners on first and second with one out, but UL Lafayette’s sidearming Colton Lee came on and quelled the threat by retiring the next two NSU hitters.
Lee then retired the Demons in order in the ninth to record his first save of the season.
Daughdrill had NSU’s lone multi-hit game, while Stefan Trosclair (2-for-5, RBI), Greg Davis (2-for-5), Robbins (2-for-4, 4 RBIs) and Evan Powell (2-for-5, RBI) all had multi-hit outings for UL Lafayette, which collected 12 hits on the night.
The Demons are scheduled to remain at home this weekend, as Creighton is set to travel to Natchitoches for a three-game weekend series, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
- Return to Top-
Tulane 5, Southeastern La. 4
HAMMOND, La. – Tulane scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning Wednesday, spoiling Southeastern Louisiana's earlier comeback in a 5-4 Green Wave win at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
The loss snaps Southeastern's four-game winning streak to open the season.
First baseman Hunter Williams led off the ninth with a single for Tulane (3-1). A pair of ground outs moved pinch runner John Gandolfo around to third base. Fighting off a two-strike pitch, left fielder Richard Carthon singled up the middle to tie the game. After a Hunter Hope single, Lex Kaplan doubled in Carthon with what proved to be the winning run.
Trailing 3-0, Southeastern (4-1) scored four runs with two outs in the seventh to take the lead.
Freshman catcher Nico Cuccia singled through the right side to start the Lion rally. After reliever Jordan Gross issued back-to-back walks to Brooks Morse and Jacob Seward, the Green Wave brought in right-hander Eric Steel.
Lion right fielder Kyle Cedotal greeted Steel with a triple into the left-center field gap, tying the game. He later scored on Daniel Midyett's RBI single to left.
Southeastern struggled to score early in the game against Tulane starter Patrick Duester, but Lion southpaw Domenick Carlini was just as impressive. The junior from Nesbit, Mississippi, fanned 11 batters in 5 innings, leaving a runner on base and a 1-0 deficit when he exited the game.
The Green Wave would get to reliever Kade Granier for a pair of runs in the sixth, the first of which was charged to Carlini.
Ian Gibaut (1-1), who worked out of a bases-loaded, no out jam in the eighth for Tulane, earned the win. Dan Rankin pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his first save of the season. Pat Cashman (0-1) was charged with the loss, allowing a pair of runs in two innings of work.
Southeastern travels to Arlington, Texas, this weekend for the UTA Hilton Invitational. The Lions face host UT Arlington at 3 p.m. Friday, Houston Baptist at 11 a.m. Saturday and Michigan State at 11 a.m. Sunday.
- Return to Top-