THIBODAUX, LOUISIANA – The University of the Incarnate Word baseball team dropped the first game of a three-game series at Southland Conference rival Nicholls State University on Thursday, 4-1 at Ray E. Didier Field.

The Cardinals (11-17, 2-8) scored first in the game, but the Colonels (16-12-1, 6-7) only needed one big inning to earn the victory.  UIW got on the board in the first inning when Jesse Hoover (Marion/Marion HS) walked with two outs and then scored when Austin Hoffman and Ethan McGill (Penn Valley, CA/Nevada Union HS) followed with back-to-back singles.

The Colonels responded in the bottom of the second inning.  After one out, they put together three straight hits and tied the game on a double by Christian Correa.  It looked like UIW starting pitcher Geno Encina (San Antonio/Brandeis HS) was going to get out of the inning when he got the second out, but Joey Morales singled up the middle and then an error by UIW made it 3-1.

Nicholls was able to tack on another unearned run in the bottom of the third inning and that proved to be the end of the scoring.

The Cardinals had chances to score in the sixth and eighth innings.  Matt Morris (Scottsdale, AZ/Sagauro HS) led off the sixth with a double, but was stranded.  In the eighth inning, Morris hit a one-out double and then back-to-back hit batsmen loaded the bases for the Cardinals.  The Colonels brought in their closer, Stuart Holmes, who was able to strike out the next two batters to close out the inning.

Holmes stayed on for the ninth inning and held the Cardinals scoreless to earn his 10^th save of the season.  Ryan Deemes improved to 4-0 on the season after allowing five hits, one run and three walks while striking out seven in 7.1 innings.

Encina was tagged with the hard luck loss for UIW.  He pitched 7.0 strong innings allowing six hits, two earned runs and no walks while striking out five.  Morris was the only UIW player with more than one hit.

The teams will play again on Friday night at 6 p.m. and the final game of the series is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m.
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