The Nicholls baseball team dropped in last weekend’s three-game series to the Central Arkansas Bears Sunday at Ray E. Dider Field. The Colonels (5-32, 1-14) lost the first game of the series 1-9 Friday, but followed with their first conference win of the year Saturday 6-3.
Colonels pitcher Michael Bartek (0-8) started the game and received the loss after five innings surrendering seven hits and four runs.
Bartek led all pitchers with six strikeouts and allowed one walk.
The Bears put runs on the board in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings.
The game ended after the seventh inning due to the 15-run rule, which ends a game after a team is down by 15 runs.
At the top of the second inning, Bartek started by hitting Bears shortstop Jonathan Ashworth with a pitch on a 1-2 count. Bartek then walked Bears catcher Chris Davis, who was put out at second base on a fielder’s choice off the bat of second baseman Graham Martin, which advanced Ashworth to third base.
On the next pitch, center fielder Scott Cline laid down a sacrifice bunt, which Bartek fielded and threw to Colonel shortstop Keith Kulbeth. Ashworth broke from third and scored the first run.
The Bears touched Bartek in top of the fourth for three more runs and extended their lead to 4-0.
After striking Davis out, Bartek hit Martin with a pitch. Cline followed by singling to right center, advancing Martin to third base. Left fielder Kevin Rawls then doubled to left center field scoring both Martin and Cline.
Bears right fielder Craig Nyborg finished the scoring for Central Arkansas with a single up the middle to plate Rawls.
Bartek allowed another run in the sixth before being replaced by southpaw Justin Breaux.
Breaux inherited runners on first and second with no outs. After popping out Nyborg, Breaux served a 1-0 pitch to first baseman Matt Warren who hit it out of the park for a two-run homerun.
The seventh inning would prove to be the undoing of Breaux and the Colonels with the Bears scoring seven more runs.
Ashworth started the inning with a sharp single to left center which Colonel center fielder Walter Jones mishandled, allowing Ashworth to second. Davis hit a fly ball to center field, allowing Ashworth to tag up and advance to third.
Second baseman Graham Martin grounded out to Kulbeth for the second out of the inning. Ashworth then scored on an error by right fielder Anthony Marino off the bat of Cline. Rawls followed with a single hit to center field, allowing him to reach third and plated Cline from first.
After surrendering another single and walking the next two batters, Breaux was replaced by Lance Dupuis.
On the third pitch from Dupuis to Chris Houk, Houk hit a Bears second homerun with a three-run shot to left field.
The Colonels hits came from Kulbeth, Quinton Corley, and a double by Ryan Bledsoe.
