Nicholls earns first SLC home win of the season, avoids sweep with 13-5 win over Demons

Nicholls wasted little time Sunday afternoon in its quest to win the Colonels’ first Southland Conference home game of the season.

The Colonels scored six runs in the first inning on their way to a 13-5 win over Northwestern State to avoid a sweep of their three-game series against the Demons on Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray Didier Field.

The six-run first inning came only a day after Nicholls surrendered six runs in the second inning against Northwestern State in a game that featured an inside-the-park grand slam by the Demons.

Nicholls moved to 7-5 in the Southland and 24-13 overall with the win. Northwestern State fell to 6-6 in the SLC and 13-23 overall.

After opening the season 9-0 at home, it took the Colonels six tries to finally win a conference home game. Nicholls is 6-0 on the season on the road in the SLC.

“Baseball’s weird sometimes,” said Nicholls second baseman Drake Anderson, who went 5 for 5 at the plate on Sunday. “You can do everything right and you can lose. You can do everything wrong and win. It’s just how it works sometimes.”

“It’s nice to get the first one under the belt,” Nicholls first baseman Edgar Alvarez said. “Hopefully, we start protecting ‘The Did’ a little bit better. It’s something we like to preach. You’ve got to be able to win at home. Especially in conference play, it’s important to get those wins.”

Sunday, the Colonels struck early by taking advantage of a lack of control by Northwestern State starter Dylan Marionneaux.

Marionneaux walked the first three batters to load the bases. Cleanup hitter Garrett Felix delivered a single to right center to drive in the first two runs of the inning. After a sacrifice bunt by Cade Crosby, Anderson followed with a single up the middle to make it 4-0.

After Marionneaux loaded the bases again with his fourth walk of the inning, he was replaced by Bryce Leonard.

Nicholls catcher Kade Turnage was hit by the very first pitch Leonard threw to force in a run to make it 5-0. With the bases still loaded, Parker Coddou, the 10th batter of the inning, grounded out to first base to give the Colonels a 6-0 lead.

“It’s huge to just go out there and get those runs in the first inning because it just gives us the momentum the rest of the game and just keep on going out there and keep on working,” said Anderson.

“I think just setting the tone early was big time for us,” Alvarez said. “We were hoping to continue on with those runs. I think we scored in the second or third, maybe the fourth. We were just trying to stack together (at-bats) and give our guy a shot. (Starting pitcher Michael Quevedo) has been really good for us. Giving him a lead will alleviate some of that pressure on him.”

A big early deficit is something the Colonels have been a victim to in recent outings.

“We’ve been on the other side of that before,” Nicholls coach Mike Silva said. “We dig ourselves a big hole early in the game. It happened twice this weekend. It was nice to be on the other side of that, but we gotta do better when guys are throwing strikes and we gotta do a better job of creating some length in our lineup.

“Look, it’s a win and we needed to win. We’re still in the hunt for this thing and we haven’t played our best baseball yet.”

The Colonels added a run in the bottom of the second on a run-scoring double by Anderson to make it 7-0.

Each team produced two runs in the third inning.

Northwestern got its two runs in the top half of the inning on back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Reese Lipoma and Balin Valentine.

Nicholls answered in the bottom half of the inning with two runs on a two-run single up the middle by Alvarez, giving Nicholls a 9-2 lead.

The Demons struck again in the top of the fourth, this time with Nicholls answering with a leadoff home run by Crosby, a sacrifice fly by Coddou, and a run-scoring single by Alvarez to extend the Colonels’ lead to 12-3.

Northwestern State added two more runs in the sixth inning on a two-run homer by Rocco Gump.

The final of the game came on a run-scoring single by Anderson in the seventh inning. It was part of his five-hit day at the plate for the Nicholls second baseman, who also drove in four runs.

“I was just going up there trying to do everything for the team to win, just compete and hit the ball hard,” Anderson said of his big day.

“We needed that from him,” Silva said of Anderson. “I think he’s underachieved at times this year. He needed a day like that, just like we did. We needed to get him going. I thought he stayed within himself, battled with two strikes. At times, I feel like he gave a lot of at-bats away this year. For him to do that, it’s big for his confidence. But moving forward for us, hopefully he can build on that.”

Alvarez also had a big day at the plate for Nicholls. The Nicholls first baseman was 2 for 4 on the day with two walks while driving in three runs.

Nicholls starter Michael Quevedo (5-0) picked up the win.

“He gave us five. I think he could have given us more. I think he was trying to do a little bit too much out there at times. He went five innings, struck out eight, walked one, that’s a really good outing. I thought if he had stayed within himself and executed a little bit more, he could have gotten us deeper,” Silva said.

Nicholls used five relievers to close out the game.

“The rest of the bullpen I thought did their job. They threw strikes,” said Silva. “Gavin (Galy) gave up a couple of runs, but he pounded his own for the most part. Then Dallis Moran came in and got the big punch out with the bases loaded after he walked a guy and made an error. The walk wasn’t terrible. He was all around the strike zone.

“We make the error and here we go again with the bases loaded and two outs and we hit the guy in the foot, but he holds it together. Those are the games that have been getting away from us. He gets the strikeout and gets us back in the dugout. That’s huge moving forward.”

Marionneaux (2-6), who lasted only one-third of an inning, took the loss. He allowed six runs, on two hits and four walks.

Northwestern State 11, Nicholls 10: The Colonels spotted Northwestern six runs in the first inning, including an inside-the-park grand slam in the second game of the series Saturday night.

Valentine, with the bases loaded, hit a ball to left field. Felix, the Nicholls left fielder raised his hands to signify the ball out of play when it appeared to be under the fence, which would have been a ground-rule double, allowing only two runs to score. Felix then picked up the ball before a ruling by the umpire. Valentine continued to circle the bases on the play. The umpires ruled the ball was in play, resulting in the grand slam.

Because of an error earlier in the inning, all six runs against Nicholls starter Jack Nelson were unearned.

Nicholls countered with five runs in the third inning to get back in the game and took the lead 7-6 in the fourth on a two-run single by Gerardo Villarreal.

Northwestern came up with another big inning with five runs in the top of the seventh inning to regain the lead at 11-7.

The Colonels countered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning on a three-run homer by pinch-hitter Basiel Williams but that would be as close as Nicholls would get as the Demons clinched the series.

Devin Desandro (3-3), the third of four Nicholls pitchers got the loss. He allowed five runs on six hits and a walk in one inning.

Aiden Newton (1-3), the second of five Demons pitchers picked up the win. He allowed three runs on two hits and one walk, while striking out four in three innings.