Nicholls State baseball coach Chip Durham had two rules for his team prior to its meeting with No. 1 LSU.The first was to have fun. The second rule was for the Colonels to play hard regardless of the score.Nicholls State did both to perfection Wednesday night and held LSU to just four hits in a 3-1 win — the Colonels’ first win against LSU in the team’s past 18 meetings.”We’re not supposed to win this game,” Durham said. “I’m very proud of our guys, and we’re going to enjoy this win.”The Colonels kept the LSU offense out of rhythm throughout Wednesday’s game and used eight different pitchers.The Tigers (27-10, 10-5) mustered just four hits — two coming from junior outfielder Blake Dean.”I’ve never faced that many pitchers,” Dean said. “It’s tough. It’s difficult for a hitter because it’s the first time you see a guy basically every inning.”LSU coach Paul Mainieri paid high praise to the Colonels’ pitchers and said they were all capable of consistently recording outs against Southeastern Conference competition.”Their pitching was surprising, I have to admit,” Mainieri said. “They threw [eight] kids tonight, and I’d love to have any one of those kids. They all threw with good velocity and had good secondary pitches. They kept our kids off balance.”Both teams were scoreless until the bottom of the third inning when LSU senior third baseman Derek Helenihi hit a sacrifice fly to center field to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.The sacrifice scored senior first baseman Buzzy Haydel, who was hit by a pitch from Colonels’ senior pitcher Ryan Harding to lead off the inning.But the Colonels (17-18) fired back and took a 3-1 lead with a three-run fourth inning.Junior right fielder Scott Moseley and junior first baseman Tyler Minto each had RBI singles in the inning off LSU starter Chris Matulis, and junior designated hitter Adam Miley added an RBI on a fielder’s choice ground out.The runs were the only allowed by Matulis, who pitched five innings and allowed three runs on four hits.But Mainieri said despite a solid start, he still hoped for more from his freshman starter.”To me, effective pitching is the level of pitching it takes to win the game,” Mainieri said. “And that wasn’t the level of pitching it took to win the game, so it wasn’t effective. You just can’t walk a guy and fall behind on left-handed hitters and have to lay pitches in there when you should have the advantage.”Sophomore Ben Alsup relieved Matulis and pitched three scoreless innings, and senior Nolan Cain and freshman Matty Ott combined to pitch a scoreless ninth inning. But they were unable to receive help from the Tigers’ offense.The loss marks the third time LSU has been defeated by in-state opponents this season.Louisiana-Lafayette defeated the Tigers on March 11, and Tulane beat LSU on April 1.Dean said the team’s lack of intensity in mid-week games is something that must change as the season goes forward.”We shouldn’t be losing these kinds of games,” Dean said. “We should be coming out here and winning these and obviously we’re not, so we need to come out here and play better.”—-Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]