Box Score and Play-by-Play in .html Format

NATCHITOCHES, La. – Senior second baseman Ty Summerlin tied his career high by going 2-for-5 and extending his hitting streak to 16 games, sophomore first baseman Joe Sparacino went 2-for-3 with two doubles and freshman shortstop Justin Boudreaux went 2-for-4 with two RBI as the Lions tried to mount a rally from a seven run deficit. 

Unfortunately, after a three-run fourth brought the Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team (34-19, 20-11 Southland Conference) to within four at 8-4, the Northwestern State Demons (25-23, 17-12 SLC) put up four in the sixth to pull away and hand the Lions a 12-4 loss in the opener of a three-game series on Thursday night.

The Lions entered Thursday's contest looking to help their chances of locking up a No. 2 seed at next week's Southland Conference Tournament.  Southeastern entered the contest with a two-game lead for second place over Texas-Arlington, Lamar and Texas-San Antonio.

Unfortunately, for the Lions, the Demons jumped out to a fast start.  Northwestern State tallied three in the bottom of the first and five more in the bottom of the third off of Lion starter Ryan Boudreaux. 

Southeastern managed one in the top of the second as Sparacino doubled and came home on a single by Justin Boudreaux, but the Lions still faced an 8-1 deficit after two.

The Lions, who have rallied for 23 come-from-behind wins this season, refused to go quietly as Southeastern scored three in the fourth on another RBI single by Justin Boudreaux and a two-run double by sophomore center fielder Cass Hargis.

Boudreaux settled down after the second, keeping the Demons off the board in the third before giving way to freshman reliever Josh Janway in the fourth. 

Janway kept Southeastern in the ballgame by holding Northwestern State scoreless through the first 2.1 of his 4.0 relief innings.  However, the Baton Rouge native ran into trouble in the seventh as Northwestern State broke the game open with four runs on four hits to take a 12-4 lead.

Northwestern State right hander Andrew Plotkin came on in relief and worked 3.0 innings to earn the save by keeping the Lions scoreless the rest of the way.

The Lions will try to even the three-game series with their in-state rivals at one game each when they return to action on Friday.  First pitch of game two is set for 6:30 p.m.  Southeastern can still clinch a No. 2 seed at the conference tournament by winning the remaining two games of the series or with one win and one loss each from UTSA, UTA and Lamar over the weekend.

Live stats and streaming audio play-by-play will be available online at www.LionSports.net, and the game can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU 90.9 FM.