Southern struggles at plate in loss to Nicholls
THIBODAUX — Southern’s first three baseball games of the season offered quite a bit of promise.
The Jaguars’ fourth game, a 10-3 loss to Nicholls State at Ray E. Didier Field on Tuesday night, wasn’t quite as impressive.
Still, it didn’t send Roger Cador in search of a panic button.
“There were a couple times where we fouled off a couple pitches and extended at-bats, and I really felt that some of our pitchers did well — because you can’t just look at the box score and tell how well they did,” the 28th-year SU coach said.
“But the thing that we have to remember is, it’s still early in the season. We have to stress to our players that they work hard, good things will happen down the road.”
Tuesday night, the Jaguars often struggled at the plate.
Nicholls State right-hander Kory Delange allowed two runs in five innings, and he combined with three relievers to hold Southern (3-2) to just four hits.
Meanwhile, the Colonels (2-3) scored five runs (four earned) in three-plus innings against SU pitcher Pedro Fargas, a freshman left-hander making his first college start.
Leading 1-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Colonels scored four runs on four hits. They added three more in the sixth and two more in the eighth.
Delange (1-0) struck out seven and walked four. He also balked once, hit two batters and threw one wild pitch. Though he ran into trouble in the sixth, Delange left with the lead, and three NSU relievers held it.
Derrick Hopkins and B.J. Rowry both had RBI doubles for Southern, who scored all three of their runs in the top of the sixth.
Nicholls got a big day from Michael LeGrange and Philip Lyons, who combined to go 4-for-9 with six RBIs.
Softball
LSU 7, Southeastern Louisiana 0: LSU used a five-run first inning on the way to a 7-0 win over Southeastern Louisiana in non-conference softball action Tuesday night in Tiger Park.
LSU improved to 5-4 with the win. Southeastern fell to 1-8 with its fifth straight loss. Senior Katie Matthews, junior Michelle Duhe and junior Kelsey Nichols all had hits for the Lady Lions against LSU starter Brittany Mack (2-3), who struck out.
Southern loses first game, wins second against LSU-Alexandria: Gabrielle McDaniel made her teammates’ two unearned runs in the bottom of the third inning stand in the Southern Lady Jaguars’ 2-0 win over LSU-Alexandria in the second game of a doubleheader Tuesday afternoon at Southern.
LSU-A won the first game 4-1.
McDaniel scattered six hits, walked none and struck out three in her seven innings.
Southern shortstop Shawntell Steamer was credited with two RBI in the Lady Jaguars’ third-inning scoring on a play when two LSU-A fielders were charged with errors, plays that marred LSU-A’s Logan Hebert’s five-hit pitching performance.
LSU-A jumped out with two runs in the first inning of the first game. Amanda Harmon’s 3-for-3 game included a run-scoring double in that inning for the visitors.