The Colonel Baseball team concluded a three-game sweep of the Grambling State University Tigers with a 12-1 victory Sunday at Ray E. Didier Field.Playing in their first home series of the season, the Colonels won 17-3 on Friday and 13-3 on Saturday.
Head baseball coach B.D. Parker said he was pleased with his team’s performance in the series.
“We made a big jump on the mound this weekend as far as our guys throwing strikes and throwing quality strikes,” Parker said. “I really felt like our guys competed well on the hill. I think defensively, we did a very good job, especially considering we didn’t get any field time all week because the field was under water.”
In Sunday’s action, the Colonels (3-3) started the scoring, plating a run in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI double to left field by senior right fielder Bubba Bell.
The Tigers (2-4) knotted the score at one in the top of the fifth on a single by shortstop Chris Sharp.
Not to be denied, the Colonels pushed across single runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to increase their lead 3-1.
The Colonels broke the game open in the bottom of the eighth inning when they plated nine runs on six hits.
Junior third baseman Jose Higuera doubled in Bell for a 4-1 Colonel advantage. Two batters later, junior catcher Michael Muscato drove home Higuera on an RBI single.
Later in the inning, the Colonels scored four more runs via a bases-loaded walk, back-to-back singles by junior shortstop Tim Daigle and senior first baseman Anthony Hatch and a wild pitch.
With a commanding 9-1 lead, the Colonels continued their scoring barrage as Bell hit a triple driving in two more Colonel runs, and Higuera capped off the scoring with an RBI single for the final of 12-1.
Parker said it was good that his team was able to score multiple runs at one time or another during all three games.
Bell said the difference between last weekend and this weekend, as far as hitting, was the team’s approach to the plate and the amount of right-handed pitchers they faced.
“We had a better approach, and actually we saw some right-handers instead of a bunch of lefties, so that was a big difference also,” Bell said.
Junior pitcher Marcus Markray (1-1) got the win for the Colonels, pitching 5.2 inning, allowing one earned run on four hits, walking three and striking out eight Tigers.
“He (Markray) was in the strike zone today,” Parker said. “He was getting ahead of hitters, and he got a lot of ground balls in the infield. He really went out and pitched well.”
Branden Waters (1-1) suffered the loss for Grambling as he allowed three earned runs on five hits and walked four in six innings of work.
Grambling State head baseball coach James Randall said this weekend was beneficial for his team.
“We got decent pitching up until the last innings,” Randall said. “This was a good learning experience for us. They (Nicholls) have a good ball club. It was good to get down here to get this series in.”
Leading the way for the Colonels was Daigle, Higuera and Bell. Daigle and Higuera each went 3-5 with two RBIs and one run scored while Bell finished the day with a 2-2 performance at the plate with three RBIs and three runs scored. Sharp led the Tigers going 1-5 with one RBI.
The Colonels will return to action when they play Southern University tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in the first of a three-game series. Tomorrow and Sunday’s games will be played at Didier Field while the Colonels will travel to Baton Rouge for the Saturday afternoon game.
