Healthy Nicholls pitching staff goes into SLC series against Northwestern State

No midweek game, coupled with efforts of the previous weekend, has allowed the Nicholls baseball team’s bullpen a chance to get some much-needed rest.

An overtaxed bullpen that had been struggling for several outings got some relief of its own during the Colonels’ three-game sweep at Southeastern Louisiana.

In Game 2 of the series, Michael Guerrero pitched shutout ball in the final 4 1/3 innings of the game in relief of starter Jack Nelson to pick up his second win of the season.

“Jack Nelson is just now starting to get healthy. His last two outings at Corpus Christi and then this weekend against Southeastern, he maybe didn’t have his best stuff, but he’s healthy enough now to grind through it,” Nicholls coach Mike Silva said. “Michael Guerrero’s another one. We were without him for three weeks. Him coming back in and giving us those four innings out of the bullpen and take us home, it’s huge.”

Nelson is getting back into form, according to Silva, after having offseason surgery.

“One of the things with Jack, which I really don’t think is major, but he missed the whole fall. He had a finger injury in the fall. He had to get surgery on it twice. He couldn’t throw all fall, and we’re trying to rush to get him back. When you’re rushing to get those guys back, sometimes, your body’s not getting a chance to recover. I think that caught up with him and with us,” said Silva.

Because of a freak incident in which he suffered a high ankle sprain while jogging onto the practice field just before the Nebraska series, Guerrero has appeared in only 10 games all season. At one stretch, he went 20 games without making an appearance. He sports a 2.08 earned run average, having allowed four runs on 14 hits and seven walks, while striking out 22 in 17 1/3 innings.

“He’s getting closer to 100 percent now,” Silva said. “I wouldn’t say he’s at 100, but he’s good enough to go out and give us quality innings.

Nelson being on the mend and Guerrero being injured took a toll on the Nicholls pitching staff.

“You take those two guys out, some other guys that are more role guys or match-up guys are having to play bigger roles and they’re getting exposed, and their confidence is getting shot,” said Silva. “The game is hard. It’s huge having those guys back. At the beginning of the season, we pitched Jack going on Saturday, Jake (Mayers) was going on Friday, and Mike on Sunday.

“These last two weekends were the first time all year that we’ve had those three guys. It all starts and ends on the mound. I think our kids have confidence we’ll roll those three guys out and that allows us to not have to overextend our bullpen guys, or not have to try to get a guy out and sneak a guy through. Like with Guerrero on Saturday, we felt like we still had some bullets down the bullpen for Sundays, so we just let him go and try to get the series win.”

In Game 3, Nicholls starter Michael Quevedo had a no-hitter through the first four innings before giving up a leadoff home run to Southeastern Louisiana’s T.J. Salvaggio to open the fifth. Until that point, the only baserunner allowed by Quevedo through four innings came when he issued a two-out walk to Jeremy Rader in the second inning.

In the first time through the SLU order, the junior left-hander struck out seven of nine Lion batters.

He left the game with one out in the eighth inning. Two runners on base who were his responsibility came in the score. As a result, Quevedo (3-0), who tossed 97 pitches, ended up giving up four runs on four hits and two walks to go along with his 11 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings.

The final numbers were hardly indicative of the lift he gave the Nicholls pitching staff. After numerous games in which the Colonels used nearly a half-dozen relievers to close out games, the beleaguered bullpen only had to cover the final 2 2/3 innings.

“I thought his line was even better than what it showed up on the stat sheet, which was pretty good. It was a very offensive ballpark on Sunday with balls flying out of there,” Silva said.

With five days off between the Game 3 win over SLU and the start of a three-game home series against Northwestern State on Friday, the bullpen will be well-rested to take on the Demons.

Nicholls goes into its series against Northwestern State 6-3 in the Southland Conference and 23-11 overall.

Northwestern State is 4-5 in the conference and 11-22 overall after losing two of three games at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

“I think Northwestern State’s good They took two out of three from Troy, which was a really good Sun Belt team last year. They could have taken two out of three from Corpus Christi at home. All the games were close. They beat Louisiana Tech this year. They’ve played everybody tough, and they are resilient,” said Silva.

The Demons are hitting .255 as a team, with no Northwestern player hitting above .300.

Northwestern State’s top hitter is Reese Lipoma. Lipoma is hitting .298 with no home runs while tied for second for the team lead in runs batted in with 22. He is second on the team in steals with five in five attempts.

Rocco Gump, who is tied for second on the team in batting with a .282 average, leads the team with 23 RBI. Gump is the team’s stolen base leader with six steals in seven attempts.

Daniel Burroway, who is hitting .221, leads the team in home runs with five.

In Northwestern State’s 11-4 win in the series opener against Corpus Christi, Demons starter Chase Prestwich picked up the win. He allowed four runs on five hits and four walks, while striking out four in six innings.

Prestwich (3-3) sports a 6.86 earned run average, having allowed 30 earned runs on 50 hits and 14 walks, while striking out 39 in 39 1/3 innings.

“Their Friday night guy, Prestwich, is really good. He’s pitched everybody tough. He pitched really well for six innings, I felt, against Corpus Christi last week. His defense made some miscues that kind of hurt him, but he’s a guy with an upper 80s fastball and two really good breaking balls and a changeup. He’s older and experienced,” said Silva.

In the Demons’ 5-4 loss in Game 2 against the Islanders, starter Dawson Flowers took the loss. Flowers allowed four earned runs on six hits and one walk, while striking out four in seven innings

Flowers (1-2) has a 5.63 ERA. He has allowed 24 earned runs on 45 hits and nine walks, while striking out 21 in 38 1/3 innings.

In a 7-2 loss in the series finale, starter Dylan Marionneaux picked up the loss. Marionneaux gave up six earned runs on eight hits and three walks, while striking out two in 4 2/3 innings.

Marionneaux (2-5) has an 8.38 ERA. He has allowed 27 earned runs on 38 hits and 18 walks, while striking out 14 in 29 innings.

“I think Northwestern State, they have their backs against the wall,” Silva said. “They feel like they need to win some games and we will get their best.”