Mayers, Nicholls batters dominate Islanders to open play in Southland Conference tournament

The opening game of the Southland Conference baseball tournament couldn’t have gone much better for the Nicholls Colonels.

Nicholls, the No. 2 seed, pounded out 15 hits in a 14-2 run-rule win in seven innings over seventh-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday afternoon on Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field in Hammond.

“You know it’s gonna be a tough game. It’s always emotional that first game of the postseason. Hopefully, we settled in now and I think it gave our kids some confidence,” Nicholls coach Mike Silva said.

The big run support by the Colonel hitters backed the pitching of starter Jacob Mayers. The sophomore right-hander (5-1) went six innings, allowing one run on four hits and three walks, while striking out six on 106 pitches, enabling Nicholls to preserve its bullpen as the Colonels advance in the tournament.

The only blemish for Mayers came when he allowed a solo home run to Mason Persons in the fifth inning – the only homer of the year for Persons.

“It all starts and ends on the mound,” said Silva. “Jacob walks the leadoff guy and it’s two more the rest of the way and one was on a borderline pitch. When he’s staying in the zone and not creating innings, solo home runs usually are not going to beat you.

“Offensively, we got going from the get-go. We scored every inning except for one, and the one we didn’t score, I thought were some of our best at-bats. We hit the ball right at people,” Silva said.

Not only is the Nicholls bullpen well rested. Michael Quevedo is eligible to play starting Thursday following a four-game suspension that dated back to an incident against Lamar in the second-to-last series of the regular season.

The likely starter on Thursday, Quevedo is 5-0 on the season with a 4.98 earned run average. He has allowed 33 runs on 58 hits and 19 walks, while striking out 60 in 59 2/3 innings.

Nicholls (35-20) advances to take on the winner of the game between the third-seeded University of New Orleans and No. 6 Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Each team managed to get their leadoff batters on base in the opening innings, but only the Colonels took advantage, scoring two runs in the first and second innings in building an early 4-0 lead.

Mayers walked the first batter of the game. Colonels catcher Kade Amundson quickly erased Isaac Webb on a steal attempt. Mayers got out of the inning throwing a total of only nine pitches.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi starter Zach Garcia walked both leadoff hitter Parker Coddou and Edgar Alvarez to open the bottom of the first. A single by Gerardo Villarreal to right field scored Coddou to give Nicholls a 1-0 lead.

With the bases loaded, a sacrifice fly by Drake Anderson scored Alvarez to make it 2-0.

Garcia ended up throwing 32 pitches in the opening inning.

Mayers again walked a batter to open the second inning. He went on to strike out two batters and stranding runners of the corners to again avoid damage.

In the bottom of the second inning, Narvin Booker Jr. and Amundson started things off with back-to-back singles. After Coddou popped out, Alvarez singled to right field to make it 3-0.

With runners on the corners, Villarreal reached base on an infield hit on a slow roller between first and second base, allowing Amundson to score.

After Nicholls added a run in the third inning on a run-scoring double by Amundson, the Colonels altered the script a bit in the fourth inning.

As before, the Colonels opened the inning with the first two batters reaching base on consecutive singles through the right side by Alvarez and Villarreal. Felix belted a home run to right center field to make it 8-0 and chase Garcia from the game as Nicholls continued to play add-on while not allowing runs to the opposition.

“Shutdown innings are important to keep momentum in your dugout,” said Silva. “When you face adversity, you know being able to bridge the gap and continue to extend leads. We did that today. That’s something we’ve really struggled with all year.”

New Islanders pitcher Cam Soliz shared the fate of Garcia.

After getting Basiel Williams to ground out for the first out of the inning, Soliz walked Anderson, hit MaCrae Kendrick with a pitch, and yielded a single to Booker to load the bases. Soliz walked Amundson to force in a run.

Nicholls ended up sending 10 batters to the plate in the inning as the Colonels led 9-0 through four innings.

After Persons’ home run in the fifth inning, the Colonels added five more runs in the sixth inning to set up the run-rule finish.

 The Colonels’ runs came on a solo home run by Amundson, a run-scoring single by Coddou, a two-run double by Alvarez, and a bases-loaded walk issued to Williams as Nicholls sent 10 batters to the plate for the second time in the game.

Garcia (4-3) suffered the loss. In three-plus innings, he tossed 67 pitches, allowing eight runs, seven of which were earned, on 10 hits and two walks, with one strikeout.