TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Nicholls State University baseball team saw its season come to an end as Boston College hit five home runs to power past the Colonels, 14-6, in the elimination round of the Tuscaloosa NCAA Regional Saturday afternoon at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
With the loss, Nicholls ends the season with a 34-24 overall record. Boston College (36-19) advances to play Saturday night’s loser between Alabama and Troy.
The Colonel offense was able to keep pace with Boston College in terms of hits as the Eagles had just a 16-15 advantage, but the five BC homers accounted for 11 runs. All of Nicholls’ hits were singles until Garrett Felix capped his big day at the plate with a solo shot in the ninth. Felix led the offense with a 4-for-5 outing while MaCrae Kendrick was 3-for-4.
An early long ball by Sam McNulty gave the Eagles a 3-0 lead in the second but the Colonels chipped away at the deficit and tied the game in the third. Wes Toups had a sacrifice fly for the first run in the second before Edgar Alvarez and Gerardo Villarreal both posted RBI groundouts in the third.
The tie was short-lived though as BC’s Joe Vetrano homered on the first pitch of the fourth. Then in the fifth, the Eagles took control with a five-run frame. Another leadoff long ball put them up 5-3 and the Colonels elected to intentionally walk Vetrano, but Nick Wang followed with a 3-run shot. Boston College added another run on a bases loaded walk.
The Eagles added four more runs in the seventh for a commanding 13-3 advantage.
Nicholls ended the string of seven straight runs for BC with an RBI single by Toups in the eighth. Parker Coddou added an RBI on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, but a diving catch by Daniel Baruch on the play potentially saved two other runs from scoring.
BC added one more run in the ninth before Felix hit a rocket over the right field wall for his third home run of the season.
Senior Chase Gearing suffered the loss with two earned runs on four hits in 2.0 innings of relief. A total of nine Colonels pitched including seniors Tyler Theriot, Josh Mancuso and Cade Evans. The staff combined for seven strikeouts and eight walks.
Xane Washington and Coddou joined Felix and Kendrick with multi-hit games. Washington’s two singles placed him at No. 2 on the program’s all-time single season hits list with 84 for the year.
For Boston College, Henry Leake threw 4.0 shutout innings and struck out five for the win. Vetrano, who homered twice on Friday against Troy, added two more long balls and drove in five on four hits for the Eagles.
{Courtesy: Nicholls Athletics}
