Nicholls upsets LSU Tigers 6-3

The Nicholls State University baseball team’s weekend series win against American East favorite Stony Brook was just the opening act for the Colonels, who defeated No. 4 LSU 6-3 on their home field at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field Wednesday night.
Nicholls (3-1) jumped on top early with a Justin Holt leadoff single. With two outs, Seth Stevens crushed a double to deep left field, bringing Holt home.
The Tigers (3-1) responded, loading the bases, but the Colonels escaped the inning unscathed.
In the third inning, Joey Morales and Darius Knight singled before a sacrifice fly by Nicholls catcher Christian Correa and a throwing error by LSU left fielder Chris Sciambra sent the pair home to give Nicholls a 3-0 advantage.
In the fourth frame, Marc Frazier led off with a double through the left side and came home on a hit by Tanner Vandevere that put the Colonels up by four.
With two outs in the fifth, Correa was hit by a pitch by LSU starter Doug Norman (0-1), and he was relieved by LSU junior southpaw Hunter Devall. The first batter he faced, Stevens, tripled to right field to score Correa.
A Frazier single on the next at bat sent Stevens home and gave Nicholls a 6-0 lead.
LSU provided a scare in the sixth, taking advantage of miscues by the Colonels to cut their lead in half. Mark Laird singled to center and advanced to third on consecutive wild pitches by Nicholls’ Evan Hileman before Alex Bregman notched a single that plated Laird.
Conner Hale and Andrew Stevenson added a pair of singles, resulting in two more runs for the Tigers.
Neither team could score the remainder of the contest.
“You have to credit Nicholls for playing a great game, and they certainly deserved to win,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said in a news release. “They took aggressive swings at the plate and played with a great deal of intensity and energy. We were outplayed and outcoached tonight, and it’s incumbent upon us to get back to work and get better, beginning (Thursday) at practice.”
The Tigers entered Wednesday’s contest ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation by Baseball America, and were tabbed as the No. 4 team by the USA Today Coaches’ poll, Collegiate Baseball poll and NCBWA poll after their 3-0 sweep of Kansas on opening weekend.
Alex Ernestine (1-0), the second of seven Nicholls pitchers, earned the win after he came on in relief for starting pitcher Ryan Deemes. He faced four batters in his one inning and had one strikeout.
Deemes worked the first four innings, allowing no runs on seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
Reliever Stuart Holmes picked up his second save of the season, blanking the Tigers in 1.2 hitless innings with one walk and one strikeout.
Norman, a freshman right-hander, suffered the loss after tossing 70 pitches in 4.2 innings, striking out three batters. He allowed five runs (four earned) and nine hits in his collegiate debut.
The Colonels registered 12 hits with nine different players contributing at least one hit.
Stevens led Nicholls offensively, going 2-for-5 with a double, triple, two RBIs and a run scored. Frazier went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run, while Correa batted 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
In the loss, LSU stranded 17 baserunners.
Laird paced the Tigers with a 3-for-6 night and a run. Bregman and Hale each notched an RBI and a run, while Stevenson contributed the third RBI.
Nicholls will travel to Pensacola, Florida, to take on North Florida, Southern Miss and Troy in the Diamond Cox Invitational this weekend. The Colonels will open the tournament against North Florida at 11 a.m. Friday.
All three games will be broadcast live on KNSU 91.5 FM, and Saturday’s matchup with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles will air on Cox Sports Television.
The Tigers will face Boston College in a weekend series with the first game at 2 p.m. Friday. Due to the severe weather warning for Baton Rouge, LSU will play their second game at 7 p.m. Friday night and the final game of the series Saturday at 3 p.m.
All three games may be viewed online via SEC Network+ and can be heard on affiliates of the LSU Sports Radio Network and at www.LSUsports.net.