THIBODAUX, La. – Eastern Illinois baseball fell to Nicholls State on Friday evening by a score of 9-6. The Panthers were unable to overcome four errors that resulted in three unearned runs for Nicholls.

The Colonels struck first with one run in each of the first two innings, but the Panthers wasted no time punching back, plating four runs in the top of the third.

Eastern's first two runs came off a Trenton Pallas single that drove in Tyler Castro and Eli Hill. In the following at bat, a Michael O'Conor double to deep left field allowed the speedy Pallas to advance all the way home from first base.

The Panthers tacked on one more run in the inning when Lucas Loos tripled to bring home O'Conor. It was EIU's first three-bagger of the season.

Nicholls responded with two runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game before pulling back ahead with one run in the fourth.

Eastern pulled the score back to even with a Grant Lashure RBI single in the top of the sixth, but the Colonels scored three in the bottom half to break the game open.

The Panthers scored one more run in the eighth when Cole Gober doubled to bring in O'Conor, but they were unable to put a rally together as they dropped to 1-3 on the young season.

Three Panthers recorded two hits. Trenton Pallas led the team with two RBI, while Michael O'Conor scored two runs.

Christian Carew (0-1) suffered the loss for EIU, while Nicholls reliever Nico Saltaformaggio gets credit for the win.

The Panthers and Colonels will face off again on Saturday at 6 p.m., before closing out the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday.