Jason Dennis went 3-for-3 on the night, driving in a run and scoring another.
Nicholls State 6 Central Arkansas 4
THIBODAUX, La. – The Colonel baseball team evened its series with Central Arkansas Friday night, claiming a 6-4 victory over the Bears at Ray E. Didier Field.
“I’m very proud of our guys and the way we responded today after last night’s loss. This team is capable of playing like this every night. We swung the bats, played defense well and went out and threw strikes.”
Lefty Ryan Cooper (Sulphur, La./Sulphur), who made his fifth start of the season for Nicholls, went 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits. The freshman struck out three and issued just one walk, improving his record to 3-0.
After taking over in the seventh, junior Ross Larson threw 2.2 innings of one-hit relief and did not allow a run. The righthander fanned three of the nine batters he faced.
Nicholls State Recap
Central Arkansas Recap
Sam Houston State 12 Lamar 5
HUNTSVILLE – Shortstop Jon Reed went 3-for-4 including an run-scoring triple in the Bearkats’ five-run third inning as Sam Houston State defeated Lamar 12-5 in a Southland Conference baseball game Friday afternoon at Don Sanders Stadium.
Sam Houston State (19-13, SLC 10-7) evened the SLC series at one game apiece with the win. The Bearkats banged out 17 hits as Nick Zaleski, Tyler Knight and Mark Wyatt also had three-hit days.
Lamar (23-12, SLC 10-7) was led by Brian Taylor who went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Anthony Moore had a two-run homer for the Cardinals.
Jacob Howard (3-2) was the winning pitcher, striking out two and spreading nine hits over six innings. Ryan Tepera and Will Skelton saw action in relief. Matison Smith (5-2) took the loss for Lamar.
Lamar scored a run in the top of the first inning, but the Bearkats bounced back to take a 7-1 lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first and five in the third.
The two teams will complete the three-game series Saturday at 1 p.m. in Huntsville.
Sam Houston State Recap
Lamar Recap
UT Arlington 18 McNeese State 8
ARLINGTON, Texas- UT Arlington scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning en route to an 18-8 run-rule (7 innings) victory over McNeese State on Friday evening at Clay Gould Ballpark. Michael Choice went 4-for-5 and Matt Otteman was perfect at the plate going 3-for-3 to help the Mavericks clinch their fourth Southland Conference series win this season.
UT Arlington (18-15, 11-6) scored its most runs this season while recording 18 hits – with six players recording multi-hit games – while McNeese State (14-16, 5-12) drops its fifth straight conference game and has now lost its fourth conference series of the season.
“It was obviously an offensive night,” head coach Darin Thomas said. “They seemed to answer every time we would get something going offensively. The only way we were going to win tonight was to just keep scoring.”
Both teams provided plenty of offense with a combined 34 base hits, but it was the Mavericks who scored three runs in the first, four in the third, a pair of runs in the fifth and six runs in the sixth to run away with the win.
UT-Arlington Recap
McNeese State Recap
Northwestern State 9 at UTSA 8
SAN ANTONIO – Northwestern State scored two ninth-inning runs to send the game to extra innings, then got a game-winning grounder from Trent Grondin in the 10th as reliever Chad Sheppard dominated the final two innings to help Northwestern State to a 9-8, 10-inning Southland Conference baseball win over Texas-San Antonio Friday night.
The win evened NSU’s record at 15-15 on the season and leaped Texas-San Antonio (18-16, 9-8 SLC) in the conference standings with a 9-7 record.
“I’m just extremely proud of this team and the way we bounced back,” said head coach J.P. Davis. ““We’ve consistently shown that we’re a good team late in the game. We did a really nice job hanging in there tonight.”
The Demons improved to a perfect 11-0 on the season when leading after six innings, but it didn’t seem that unbeaten streak would stand after the Roadrunners roared back from a 5-3 deficit with five runs in the seventh inning to grab an 8-5 lead.
NSU starting pitcher Jimmy Heard left the game after the sixth inning while holding the two-run advantage. He gave up three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts to go along with five walks.
Northwestern State Recap
UT-San Antonio Recap
Texas State 9 Southeastern Louisiana 3
SAN MARCOS – Zach Tritz pitched a solid eight innings, surrendering just three runs on five hits and picked up his fifth win of the season as the Texas State Bobcats defeated Southeastern Louisiana 9-3 at Bobcat Field Friday night.
Texas State is now 22-10 on the season and 12-5 in Southland Conference action, two games ahead of league competition in first place. SLU falls to 20-12 and 10-7, respectively.
The Bobcats bats came to life in the bottom of the second after a single from Lance Loftin was followed by a home run to right field by Ben Theriot. Tyler Sibley and Bret Atwood both reached base in their at-bats that followed and the damage did not stop there. Paul Goldschmidt launched a three-run homer to left field to bring the pair home and give the Bobcats a 5-0 start.
Tritz blanked the Lions in the third and fourth inning and allowed just one hit in the top of the fifth. But after a single through the right side, Joe Sparacino was held on at first as the right-hander retired the next three batters to hold off the threat.
Meanwhile, Texas State rapped out back-to-back hits in the bottom of the frame after Spenser Dennis drew a leadoff walk to add on to the fire. Brandon Efferson walked Jason Martinson to load the bases and tossed a wild pitch that gave Loftin room to score for a 7-0 Texas State lead.
Texas State Recap
Southeastern Louisiana Recap
Stephen F. Austin 4 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 3
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Adam Bosley’s pinch-hit single in the top of the seventh put the ‘Jacks on top and Richard Folmer moved into a tie for first place all-time after converting his 15th career save as SFA defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-3 on Friday at Chapman Field to even the series.
The win snapped a five game losing streak for SFA (13-18, 6-10 SLC) against the Islanders (12-22, 4-13 SLC) dating back to the first weekend of the 2008 season. It was also only the second time the ‘Jacks have won a game this season when scoring seven runs.
Erich Lehmann earned his first road win of the year, moving to 3-3 on the season with his second consecutive quality start. The senior fanned six Islanders with only a single walk in six innings of work, scattering six hits and allowing three runs.
Roy Ferdin took the loss for the Islanders, falling to 1-5 this season.
Stephen F Austin Recap
Texas A&M CC Recap
