Nicholls State remains one win away from celebrating it first Southland Conference regular-season championship.

UNO ace Brandon Mitchell and the hot-hitting Privateers made sure of that in their rain-delayed series opener on Thursday night at Maestri Field, beating the Colonels 7-6 while moving within one victory of avoiding Tuesday’s play-in game at the Southland Conference tournament.

Mitchell, a two-time Southland pitcher of the week, allowed a pair of runs in the second inning but none in the next four, benefiting from four double plays  through six innings. The Privateers (32-21, 12-10) erased their early deficit, capping a five-run fourth inning with Tyler Bischke’s three-run shot off the scoreboard in left field.

The long ball—his 10th—was the 78th of the season for UNO—tied for the fourth most in school history.

"It was a typical game for us," Dean said. "Our defense has been spectacular all year. We got some big hits and the big home run. Mitchell wasn't polished, but it was good enough. He competed his butt off and stuck with it. That's what you want out of an older guy for his potential last start here at our place."

Nicholls (29-21, 14-8), which entered the day with a two-game lead at the top of the standings, had that advantage cut to one when Incarnate Word beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Islanders also own the tiebreaker on the Colonels, having won two of three from them earlier this year.

"It was a back and forth game and we had a shot there in the last inning," Nicholls coach Mike Silva said. "They ran one out (of the park) and we didn't. That's baseball sometimes."

The pitching matchup favored UNO. Nicholls’ starter Devin Desandro (2-5) had not made it through the fifth inning since March 5. Mitchell (10-3) became the first Privateer with double-digit wins since Bryan Cryer had 12 in 2008, giving up five hits in 7⅓ innings. 

"I felt good," Mitchell said. "I was confident. It was a little humid after the rain, but it all worked out. I kept hydrated and focused on the game."

The situation will be reversed Friday night. Nicholls will go with freshman Jacob Mayers (8-1, 1.93), who has surrendered two or fewer runs in seven consecutive starts, while UNO will try to piece it together with a whole staff approach.

"Unfortunately we have been here a lot this year in this situation (losing the opener of a series)," Silva said. "We will go out tomorrow and try to get a win. He (Mayers) has been our best guy from start to finish, and I don't really see it being any different tomorrow. The moment's not going to be too big for him. He's going to go out and do his thing."

Nicholls started well against Mitchell, getting a two-run single from nine-hole hitter Kaden Amundson with two outs in the second, but the Colonels could not expand the lead. UNO, the Southland leader in double plays, turned two on groundouts and two more on line drives, matching its season high of four.

After getting a run off Desandro on Jorge Tejeda’s RBI single in the second, the Privateer tied it in the fourth on Jeissy de la Cruz’s single, chasing Desandro, and feasted on reliever Harper Jordan. Issac Williams greeted him with a single and advanced to second on Kasten Furr’s single before Bischke’s blast.

"The first pitch was a hanging slider, and I hadn't seen (Jordan) that pitcher before in the game, so I wanted to watch that first pitch to see what he had," Bischke said. "The second pitched ended up being a slider again, and I just got the barrel to it. I didn't really think it was gone at first, but a little bit of wind might have helped that." 

UNO, which had just missed going ahead in the second when Furr’s would-be grand slam sailed just left of the foul pole in left field, padded its lead to 7-2 in the seventh on back-to-back-to-back hits that began with Bischke’s double.

Nicholls struck back for two in the eighth before UNO went to new-found closer Jacob Mead after a leadoff walk in the ninth.

Mead, who earned his first three saves of the season two weeks ago on the way to being named Southland pitcher of the week, allowed a double, an RBI groundout and an RBI single by Parker Coddou before retiring Xane Washington-—the Colonels' RBI leader and the Southland leader in on-base percentage—on an infield pop-up to preserve the win, which kept the Privateers alive for a share of the championship if they sweep the series and Incarnate Word loses at least one of its final two games. 

"This win is huge," Bischke said. "It just gets us in the right mindset coming into the conference tournament next week. We still can come out here and get a sweep this weekend and potentially get a ring. That's our goal."

The nearly hour-long pre-game delay because of rain and lightning did not slow them down. 

"All it did was give that wind a little time to switch directions and blow out, which we needed," Dean said. "The lightning hit with just enough time to where Mitchell wasn't too revved up. Overall we played pretty well for the most part."