Nicholls falls to Demons 7-5 in 10 innings to drop opener of three-game Southland series

Balin Valentine hit the baseball a country mile over the left field fence in the 10th inning to give Northwestern State a 7-5 win at Nicholls in the opening game of a three-game Southland Conference series Friday night on Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray Didier Field.

One batter earlier, Reese Lipoma, beat the throw of Nicholls third baseman Erick Ordonez to first base on a ground ball by a fraction of an inch for an infield hit for what would have been the third out of the inning.

“It’s a game of inches, but we’ve got to know the runner,” Nicholls coach Mike Silva said. “They (the Nicholls infielders) have a card in their back pocket that tells them the speed of the runner. You need some focus and awareness. You know he’s a quick runner so you have to get rid of the baseball in a hurry and we don’t do that. That’s what happens in this game. At this level, the room for error is so small.

“We gotta move on to tomorrow, find a way to win tomorrow and give us a chance to win the series on Sunday.”

Like Northwestern, the Colonels had an extra-out moment in the bottom half of the 10th inning.

Ordonez appeared to be on his way to being the final out of the inning when he hit a ground ball to third base. Demons first baseman Daniel Burroway committed a fielding error on the play, giving the Colonels an extra out.

Unlike Northwestern, Nicholls was unable to take advantage.

Demons relief pitcher Caleb Bunch got Jaden Collura on a called third strike to end the game.

Trailing the entire game, the Colonels forced extra innings when Cade Crosby hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game 5-5.

The loss dropped Nicholls to 6-4 in the Southland and 23-13 overall. Northwestern State moved to 5-5 in the SLC and 12-22 overall.

Nicholls starter Jacob Mayers walked two batters in the first inning and issued a walk and hit a batter in the second inning but managed to avoid any damage.

He was not so fortunate in the third inning.

After getting the first two Demon batters out in the third, he surrendered back-to-back home runs to Clay Jung and Burroway as Northwestern State took a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, issuing another two walks with one out, Mayers was relieved by Nico Saltaformaggio.

Valentine, the first batter Saltaformaggio faced, belted a double to left field as the Demons stretched their lead to 4-0.

Nicholls first baseman Edgar Alvarez gave the Colonels a much-needed momentum boost when he hit his eighth home run of the season to open the bottom of the fourth to get Nicholls on the scoreboard.

Gerardo Villarreal followed with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by MaCrae Kendrick to pull the Colonels to within 4-2.

Nicholls narrowed the gap to 4-3 in the fifth inning on a Vallarreal sacrifice fly, but the Demons got the run back in the top of the sixth on a one-out solo home run to left field by Hayden Knotts to make it 5-3.

After the inherited runners scored and the solo home run, Saltaformaggio gave the Colonels 4 2/3 innings of solid relief to keep Nicholls close until Crosby’s two-run homer to force extra innings.

“I thought you threw good. He gave us a chance,” Silva said of Saltaformaggio. “Gavin (Galy) was fine. He did a good job. We’ve got to do a better job offensively. We were sleepwalking for most of the game. Crosby hits the big homer. Alvarez hits the big homer. We had some solid at-bat mixed in there in the middle innings and nothing to show for it – line drives at people with the bases loaded turns into a sacrifice fly and stuff like that.

“It’s just the consistency. We have to be more consistent with our at-bats and our approaches and we have to play better defense.”

Galy (1-1), the last of three Nicholls pitchers, suffered the loss. He allowed two runs on two hits, while striking out three in 2 1/3 innings of work.

Mayers worked 3 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on two hits, while walking five and hitting a batter, with three strikeouts.

“It was just self-inflicted. His pitch count ran up and we had to get him out early in the game,” said Silva.

Bunch (2-0) picked up the win in relief of Demons starter Chase Prestwich. Bunch allowed two runs on one hit and five walks, and one walk, while striking out six in five innings.

The Colonels wore pink jerseys as part of the Breast Cancer Awareness Game.