No. 1 Nicholls walks off No. 6 Southeastern, returns to Southland Championship Game

HAMMOND — Once again No. 2 Nicholls and No. 6 Southeastern played to late game dramatics at the Southland Championship. Friday night, the hometown kid Basiel Williams donned the hero’s cape for the defending champions in a monumental moment.

The native of Hammond, La., played spoiler in his hometown, belting the game-winning walk-off home run and sending the Colonels to a 4-3 win.

The star of the game finished two-of-four with two RBI while Drake Anderson and Garrett Felix both cracked two hits apiece for the Colonel offense.

Devin Desandro poured in 6.1 innings of work with one earned run on four hits and five strikeouts.

Dalton Aspholm and Larson Fabre combined for six innings with one earned run on five hits and six strikeouts. Parker Coley sparked the Lions offense with a two-of-four line and one RBI.

Alvarez awoke from a slump in the Colonels previous game, belting a solo home run to right field in the third inning to give Nicholls a 1-0 lead.

The pitchers controlled the next three innings and through five and a half frames, the teams had combined for five hits and no runs when Alvarez stepped to the dish with the bases loaded.

But Larson Fabre won the duel with the Southland Player of the Year, freezing him on strike three to escape the jam.

Southeastern made its move in the seventh inning. The Lions loaded the bases and pulled within a run after a walk scored Jake Haze from third. Parkey Coley drove a sacrifice fly deep enough to bring home the game-tying score.

Nicholls delivered a champion’s response in the eighth. Williams lifted an RBI double to the wall to bring in the eighth to score Garrett Felix, making the score 2-2. The Colonels added one more in the frame after Gerrardo Villarreal dropped an RBI single to right on an ensuing at-bat, bringing in the go-ahead run and Nicholls led 3-2 heading into the ninth.

The two seed brought in Arturo Rodriguez for a save opportunity with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The reliever had Southeastern down to its final strike, but hit batters on consecutive at-bats and conceded the game-tying run on the second walk.

Rodriguez would maneuver out of the inning and would not see the mound again. Williams saw green on the first pitching of the bottom frame and sent the towering blast out of the park.

The Colonels await the winner of tomorrow’s semifinal matchup between No. 1 Lamar and No. 5 McNeese.