Box Score SUGAR LAND – Nicholls center fielder Chet Niehaus's diving catch in the fifth inning likely won the game for the Colonels in a 10-4 win over McNeese in Thursday's elimination game of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament.
 
Trailing 3-1 and with runners on first and second with two outs, McNeese's Dustin Duhon hit a line drive into the left-center field gap where Niehaus made a diving catch and robbing the Cowboys of two runs that would've tied the game.
 
That would come back to haunt the Cowboys as Nicholls followed by scoring seven runs over the sixth through eighth innings.
 
Left fielder Shane Selman popped a three-run home run in the top of the ninth to add some excitement to the game for the Cowboys. It was hit 10^th homer of the season as he becomes the first player in school history to hit 10 or more home runs in three consecutive seasons.
 
"That was big," said head coach Justin Hill on the catch. "It seemed like over the last week we've just been waiting on breaking through. I just wasn't meant to be. But the effort was there. We showed that in the ninth inning.
 
"But no doubt, the game changes if that ball falls."
 
McNeese ends the season at 25-33 while Nicholls improves to 27-31 and will play the loser of the Southeastern Louisiana-Northwestern State game at 9 a.m. on Friday.
 
The Colonels scored solo runs in each of the first three innings and with just one hit in each. They manufactured the runs in the first and second innings then took advantage of a failed pick off attempt by Ueckert to Rogers at first base as the runner was able to move all the way to third base as the errant throw trickled down the wall.
 
A sacrifice fly by the next batter scored the unearned run to put the Colonels up 3-0.
 
Nicholls put its lead-off batter on in five of eight innings, scoring in four of those.
 
"(Starting pitcher Cayne) Ueckert was throwing out of the stretch a lot in the game," said Hill, the result of the early hitters getting on base.
 
McNeese scored in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Joe Provenzano to cut the gap to 3-1. Then had runners on first and second with two outs when Niehaus made his spectacular, game-saving catch.
 
Nicholls added two more runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, and four in the eighth to open up a 10-1 lead. The four runs in the eighth inning came after relief pitcher Aidan Anderson struck out the first two batters of the frame.
 
Provenzano led the Cowboys at the plate with three hits and ends his stellar McNeese career with a school record 254 hits and tying a record with 222 games played. Selman, Brett Whelton and Jacob Stracner each had two hits.
 
Ueckert (4-3) took the loss after he gave up five runs, four earned, on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. Nicholls' Cayden Hatcher (4-7) picked up the victory after giving up just one run and eight hits in eight innings.