Baseball swept by McNeese

The Nicholls State University baseball team was shut down this weekend in a three-game series against McNeese State University.

The Colonels took a 9-2 loss in the opener after allowing the Cowboys six runs in the first three innings. In five innings of work, Cole Stapler gave up eight runs on nine hits.

Offensively, the Colonels managed seven hits in the loss including two each from Ethan Valdez and Alex Tucker, and an RBI from Gavin Wheby.

The Colonels dropped the series the next day after two Cowboy doubles and a homerun powered them through the sixth inning where they scored six runs.

Cayden Hatcher took the loss after 4.0 innings of work with four earned runs on five hits. Hatcher walked three and struck one out before he left at the top of the fifth. Five other pitchers saw the mound out of the Colonel bullpen.

Offensively, Juan Givan, Dillon Belle Viel, Quade Smith and Chet Niehaus had multi-hit games each recording two apiece. Givan scored the Colonels’ final run in the eighth inning off his first career homerun.

Although Nicholls recorded 10 hits in the loss, they only produced single runs in the first, seventh, and eighth innings. On the other hand, the Cowboys transformed 12 hits to 12 runs for the 12-3 win.

The Colonels fell in the finale despite matching their season-high of 14 hits on the day.

Three of the 14 hits and three runs came from Joey Morales while Niehaus, Givan and Smith each recorded two hits.

Mike Hanchar allowed five earned runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings of work and took his first loss of the season.

The Colonels found five hits that drove in 3 runs in the sixth inning with two of them coming from Neihaus and one from Alex Tucker. The Cowboys returned two runs in the bottom of the inning before the Colonels scored one last run in the seventh fueled by a Neihaus single which left the score at 8-11.

With the loss, the Colonels fell to 13-11 overall and 5-4 in the Southland Conference. The Colonels will step away from conference play for an eight-game run beginning with a two-game series against Alcorn State University on Tuesday at Ray E. Didier Field.