Photo by: Graci McGehee

Team huddles before an opening weekend game.(2/17/2024)

Nicholls baseball completed a series sweep over Eastern Illinois University with a 9-6 win on Sunday after fending off a ninth-inning comeback attempt.

Nicholls scored nine runs in five innings and held a shutout through eight, but six EIU runs in the ninth forced Nicholls to send in closing pitcher Gavin Galy.

“It got a little hairy at the end. Cole [Poirrier] didn’t have his good stuff today, and it was tough to come into that situation [for Jordan Harper],” Silva said. “[Harper] didn’t execute a pitch and he gets taken out of the yard, then we have to go to [Galy] to shut the door.”

Galy gave up a hit on his first at-bat but came back with a strike-out and ground-out to end the game.

“I made a good pitch. He made a better swing, but you gotta come back, get some more outs, and close the door,” Galy said

Nicholls struggled at the plate late in the game with zero hits in its final three innings.

The scoreless innings saw Nicholls come one run short of a run-rule victory.

Silva said the team needed better at-bats in the late innings, being one run away from a run rule.

“We should’ve run-ruled them. We were up nine, and I think we gave at-bats away in the seventh and eighth inning,” Silva said.”We have to do a better job there right there. There were some quality at-bats, but we need more consistent length up and down.”

Third baseman Drake Anderson, one of the batters without a hit in the last three innings, hit Nicholls’ only home run in the fifth inning that put Nicholls up 9-0.

“We were up 8-0 at that point in the game, and getting a hold of that ball,” Anderson said.”It felt amazing, making us go up 9-0, one more run and we get the run rule, but we couldn’t do that. We still got the win.

Anderson tied for the lead in hits(2) and runs(2) and notched one RBI in the contest.

Nicholls kicks off its week with a trip to Biloxi, MS on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to face the University of Southern Mississippi in a neutral site contest.

Southern Miss is 6-2 on the season with losses in both weekend series to Marist College and Missouri State University.