Baseball won two against rival Northwestern

The Nicholls State University baseball team faced their rival, Northwestern State University, in a three-game series this weekend.

In the first game of the series on Friday, March 10, the Demons scored 5 runs in the 5th inning. Although the Colonels managed to bring 4 runners home in the last three combined innings, it wasn’t enough to make the comeback and Nicholls was left with an 8-5 loss.

Alex Tucker led the Colonel offense, earning three hits out of his five at-bats. Justin Holt and Troy Cahill also added two hits each.

The next day, the Colonels came back to win big in the second game of the series. Cayden Hatcher pitched six straight innings, only allowing four hits and striking out four. Northwestern scored their only run in the seventh inning.

The Colonel bullpen allowed only one hit in three innings of work pitched by Alex Ernestine, Daniel Goff and Hunter Speer.

The Colonels found offensive success with 5 players recording multiple hits on the night including Gavin Wehby who went two for five, earned five RBIs and scored two runs.

The final game of the series, a 4-4 tie, forced extra innings where the Colonels found victory over the Demons. Gage Teer’s homerun in the tenth inning allowed two runners to score.

The Colonels recorded 11 total hits in the victory. Teer led the way going two for four with four RBIs.

Mike Hanchar started on the mound for the Colonels and pitched five innings with two earned runs on six hits, and struck out five. Adam Tarver earned the victory throwing three hitless innings and struck out five.

In a combined Colonel bullpen effort, 10.1 innings were pitched in the series and only one run was earned on three hits, and 16 were struck out.

In a previous interview, Head Coach Seth Thibodeaux said earning conference wins on the road is a challenge, but that he knows the team is capable.

“It’s hard to win on the road and it’s hard to win at Northwestern but we’ve done it before,” Thibodeaux said. “I like our team and I trust them a lot, and I think that those things don’t scare them.”

The Colonels will play two mid-week games against the University of Mississippi in Biloxi on Tuesday and against Tulane University at home on Wednesday.