Final Stats THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University baseball team had its chances against Texas State on Saturday afternoon, holding leads at three different points of the game. But the Bobcats refused to go quietly and charged back every time, eventually scoring two runs in the eighth for the kill shot defeating the Colonels 7-5.

Philip Lyons led the Colonels (20-22, 8-15) at the plate, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored, and accounting for a third of the Colonels' nine hits on the day.

Lyons singled up the middle to lead off the Colonel first, and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Barba. The Colonels would go down in order to end the inning.

Michael LeGrange doubled to left-center to begin the second inning, and a deep pop fly to right field allowed the senior right fielder to tag up and advance to third. In the next at bat, Austin Flores hit another deep fly ball, this time to center field scoring LeGrange on the sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead.

Texas State got its offense going in the fifth, scoring two runs on three hits, to take a 2-1 lead.

Lyons singled to right-center for his second hit of the game, and in the process of stealing second, the errant throw by the Texas State catcher allowed him to advance to third with no outs. After a strikeout, Jeremy Hill singled through the middle scoring Lyons to tie the game at 2-2, and was followed by a stand-up double by Beau Faulk driving in Hill from first to retake the lead 3-2. Blake Bergeron used a ten pitch at bat to stay alive in the inning, but went down on a looking strike out to end the inning.

The Bobcats once again tied the game in the seventh, as Shreve was relieved in favor of White after getting the first out of the inning. White closed the door on the Bobcats, preserving the 3-3 tie in the inning.

Flores singled through the left side to begin the bottom of the seventh, and in the next at bat Cody Dufrene put down a bunt that got Flores out at second. Matt Richard then doubled to right-center advancing Dufrene to third putting runners in scoring position with only one out. Lyons took the first pitch he saw in his at bat and poked it through left side to score Dufrene to take a 4-3 lead. Barba reached on an error by the second baseman loading the bases. On the next play, Hill hit a grounder to the first baseman who got Richard with the forced out at home, but on the throw back to the first baseman to get Hill to double up, the errant throw allowed Lyons to score and advance Hill going up 5-3 for the last run of the inning.

Texas State rallied again to tie the game as the Colonels switched to Delatte in the inning, coming on with two runners already on base, scoring both runs on just one hit to knot the score at six.

The Colonels were bitten by another scary play in the outfield, as Barba and Richard collided resulting in a triple. Barba would come out of the game as Richard moved over to Center and David Zorn came in left. The Bobcats took advantage using a double and sacrifice bunt to get two runs across the plate to take a 7-5 lead.

The finale of the series between the two will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday.