The Colonels picked up their 20th error en route to their second set of back-to-back losses, falling to Tulane 13-3 on Tuesday after losing against LSU by the same score the night before.

Matt Melancon opened the scoring for the Colonels with a solo home run in the second inning, but the Green Wave quickly erased their deficit, scoring three runs in the top half of the third inning.

An error and a walk to start the fourth inning only worsened the blow for the Colonels from the Green Wave’s three-run third inning as catcher Hugh Pinkney cleared the two runners let on base.

Errors have been a mark of concern for Nicholls head coach Brent Haring who said he thought fielding would be a strong suit for the Colonels heading into the season.

“We’ve struggled a little bit [but] I think our guys are capable of playing a better defense than we have, so we’ll just have to keep pounding away out there,” Haring said.

Down by four in the sixth inning, the Colonels squandered an opportunity to tie the game. An infield hit from Matt Melancon loaded bases with one out, but a strikeout followed by a flyout left three Colonels on base.

The Colonels rebounded in the next inning picking up their third run to draw within three, but the Green Wave bats woke up in the final two innings. Tulane outdid their six-run total for the first seven innings, driving home seven runs between the eighth and ninth innings.

Haring said there are no moral victories in baseball, still, he found some positives in the last two losses.

“We can compete with those teams if we limit what we give them,” Haring said. “Ten walks tonight and 13 free bases last night, you’re surely not going to beat good teams when you do that, but if we can suffocate the strike zone and limit mistakes, we’ve proven we can hang with them.”

The Colonels start conference play this weekend with a series against McNeese State University. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday