Photo by: Tory Trahan

Assistant coach Cody Livingston [#53] talking with pitcher Nico Saltaformaggio [#38] on the mound(5/12).

THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team earned their ninth series win this season by defeating Lamar University 3-0 on Sunday.

The Colonels improve their record to 32-19 overall and 14-7 in the Southland Conference. They are one game out of first place in the conference.

The Colonels played without head coach Mike Silva, and starting pitcher Michael Quevedo for the last six innings of the game.

Home plate Umpire Alex Ziegler ejected Silva and Quevedo in the third inning for using explicit language.

Assistant coach Cody Livingston took over as head coach and pitcher Nico Saltaformaggio took over on the mound for Quevedo.

Outfielder Basiel Williams singled to left field in the first inning, advancing Garrett Felix to second and scoring Gerardo Villareal, giving Nicholls its first run.

Shortstop Parker Coddou reached on a fielder’s choice and drove in MaCrae Kendrick for a 2-0 lead.

Saltaformaggio struck out five batters and allowed four hits on 94 pitches in his six-innings pitched

Narvin Booker Jr. scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Coddou in the sixth inning for the final run.

Saltaformaggio said he just wanted to compete for his guys when he took the mound unexpectedly.

“I wanted to step up,” Saltaformaggio said. “I knew the offense would continue to step up and have good at-bats.”

Livingston said that the players are always ready for change in case something happens.

“No matter the circumstance, our guys are always ready to come out,” Livingston said. “Nico [Saltaformaggio] came out, did his thing, and gave us the victory.”

Nicholls has its eyes set on the Southland Conference regular season championship after winning the series against first-place Lamar.

How Nicholls can win the regular season championship:

Nicholls must sweep their series against McNeese State University

And

Lamar must lose at least one game against the University of New Orleans.

Livingston said the team has to take things one game at a time for the rest of the season.

“Just taking it one game at a time,” Livingston said. “We have practice on Tuesday and Wednesday, then game day on Thursday.”

Next Up

Nicholls hosts McNeese in the final series of the regular season.

Series Schedule:

• Thursday: 6:30 p.m.
• Friday: 6:30 p.m.
• Saturday: 1 p.m.

All games are streaming on ESPN+.