Stephen F. Austin
Nicholls State
Early Runs Help SFA Even Series
3/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 26, 2011
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NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Lumberjacks jumped out to an 8-2 lead on Nicholls, but had to withstand a late Colonel charge to hang on to a 10-7 win on Saturday at Jaycees Field, evening the series after the Colonels stole the opener on Friday.
Darren Crabtree finished 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBI, while Jarid Scarafiotti went 4-for-4 in spearheading a 14-hit attack for the `Jacks (17-7, 7-1 SLC). Jared West earned his team-best fourth win of the year, despite allowing five runs in just 5.1 innings of work, and his brother Jason West came on to get the final two outs of the game to earn his third save of the season.
Nicholls (8-13, 1-7 SLC) starter Brian Arceneaux allowed seven runs in just four innings without striking out a batter for the Colonels in seeing his record fall to 1-4 on the year.
The win, along with Texas State's loss at Lamar, puts SFA back into a tie with the Bobcats for the early lead in the Southland Conference race.
The Lumberjacks never trailed in the game, jumping on Arceneaux early and often, including sending nine hitters to the plate in the first inning in jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Consecutive walks to Bryson Myles and Jordan Lewis got things going for SFA in the first before Crabtree and Scarafiotti each delivered RBI singles in consecutive at-bats. Two batters later Hunter Dozier drove one in with an infield roller with the bases loaded and just one out, but Arceneaux managed to get the last two hitters of the inning to minimize the damage with the `Jacks up 3-0 after just one inning.
Nicholls got two back in the top of the second on a ground ball from Jason Dennis and a single from Austin Flores, but Crabtree answered that with a two-out solo homer in the SFA half of the second to push the lead back to 4-2.
After West pitched around a leadoff triple in the fourth, the `Jacks broke it open with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. Myles started it by reaching second on a dropped pop fly by Flores, and after Lewis moved him to third with a bunt, Myles came in on an RBI single from Crabtree. Three batters later Jackson Hood delivered a two-run double off the left field fence to put the `Jacks up 7-2.
An RBI single from Lewis in the fifth bumped the lead to its largest at 8-2, but the Colonels had one last push left in them and it surfaced in their half of the sixth. Nicholls pushed across five runs in the inning off of West and reliever Cory Ochs before Landon Kozeny finally came in and got Scott Moseley to ground out with the tying runner on second base to keep SFA out in front.
Nicholls managed to keep SFA off the board each of the next two innings, but the `Jacks got some insurance runs in its half of the eighth. A leadoff single from Scarafiotti and a one-out double from Hood put two runners in scoring position for SFA before Michael Haynes delivered a two-out single through the right side that plated both runners and gave the `Jacks some breathing room with a 10-7 lead.
Kozeny came back out for the ninth and got the first hitter he faced to cap his 2.2-inning appearance, but the next two hitters reached, forcing the `Jacks to go to the pen to get West with the tying run at the plate. West then got the two pinch hitters he faced, including a three-pitch strikeout of Kevin Persick for the final out to secure the save.
SFA will look to claim its third straight series win in conference play on Sunday when they take on the Colonels in the series finale. Zack Taylor is slated to get the ball for SFA against lefty Mike Wisecarver for Nicholls.
-SFA-
