Clarence Richardel
April 9, 2007Lafourche deputies foil couple’s illegal romantic fling
April 11, 2007
Saturday’s game against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders was a total wash for the Nicholls State Colonels, as they dropped their 16th straight contest, 15-4. The game was called in the seventh because of the ten-run mercy rule.
Usually it’s the defense that can win games, but in this case it was the Islanders offense, which contributed to the weekend sweep of the Colonels.
The Colonels (4-29, 0-12) were outscored 42-7 for the series, dropping the first game 10-1 and the second 17-2 on Friday.
They were also out hit 17-5 in Saturday’s contest.
“I have to give them (Corpus Christi) credit,” Nicholls State Head Coach Chip Durham said. “They swung the bat well and scored the runs they needed all weekend. We’re a little snake bitten right now and somehow someway we need to get this thing turned around and going in the right direction.”
The Islanders (19-15, 6-6) scored seven of their runs in the first two innings to jump out to an early 7-0 lead.
The Colonels did not get on the board until the bottom of the third inning when they scored all four of their runs. Ryan Bledsoe, Brett Hoeflich and Brandt Boudreaux (2) notched the only RBIs of the game for the Colonels, all which came in the third.
The Islanders responded by adding one more run on a fielder’s choice in the fourth, three more in the fifth and two more runs in the sixth and seventh innings to cruise to the victory.
After the umpires talked to both coaches following a light shower to go along with the cold weather, the game was called after the seventh inning due to the ten-run rule.
Corpus Christi Head Coach Gene Salazar said the Islanders offense produced when they needed to.
“We had some guys that were at a stalemate and needed to get out of their funk,” Salazar said. “They responded real well and had the timely hits when we needed them.”
Omar Guitierrez (3-2) notched the win for the Islanders, pitching the final four innings of the game, allowing only two hits with no earned runs and six strikeouts.
Getting the loss for the Colonels was Brian Sparks (0-3), who gave up seven runs on seven hits in only 1.2 innings of work.
Jason Graham, Chase Wheaton and Bryan Gerondale combined for 10 RBIs to lead the Islanders on offense.
Even though his team is down, Durham said he hopes to salvage something of the season and turn things around soon.
“The biggest thing right now is that we just have to stay positive,” Durham said. “We didn’t have any seniors starting today. We have 18 juniors and we have to find a way for us to make sure that we get better from here to the end and come back next year with a veteran ball club.”
