THIBODAUX, La. – Nicholls starting pitcher Tyler Theriot carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and ULM couldn't rally late, falling 5-2 to the Colonels Saturday afternoon at Ray E. Didier Field.
 
"It's a tale of what we've been doing," ULM head coach Michael Federico said. "I'm just trying to put my finger on it. We're trying to execute some things in a different way and trying to look for some positivity, and we just kind of keep shooting ourselves in the foot."
 
Theriot (3-1) threw six-plus innings, giving up one run on four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. He was lifted after giving up back-to-back hits to open the seventh inning.
 
"Theriot was good," Federico said. "I felt good with our matchups with the righties. His changeup was absolutely dominating us for some reason. It wasn't anything overpowering. We just hit too many fly ball outs early. When he got some moments where he could strike us out, he did. We've got to pressure a little bit better from that standpoint. When we finally got him out, we had some opportunities. We squared some balls up."
 
The Colonels jumped on the board with two runs in the first inning as Xane Washington, Edgar Alvarez and Garrett Felix had three straight hits. Felix had an RBI single and Kody O'Connor followed with an RBI groundout for the 2-0 lead.
 
Nicholls took advantage of free passes and errors to expand the lead. Junior Tylor Jans issued a leadoff walk to Washington in the third and a bad throw on a pickoff attempt allowed Washington to move to second base. After moving to third on a ground ball, Washington scored on an RBI groundout by Felix for the 3-0 lead.
 
In the fourth inning, Parker Coddou singled and advanced to second as freshman William Perkins threw out the lead runner at third base. However, a throwing error allowed Coddou to score with two outs and pushed Nicholls' lead to 4-0.
 
The Colonels wrapped their scoring in the fifth as Alvarez hit a lead-off double and scored on O'Connor's RBI single, going up 5-0.
 
"Unfortunately we can't get this one back," Federico said. "That's what is disappointing with a lot of our losses. It goes back to the defensive side of it. We've got to play defense better. We're looking for every opportunity to figure some of these things out. We have to catch the ball better. We've got to be able to throw the ball better. We've got to quit hitting people and walking people. That's all the ingredients for failure. We're doing it over and over again."
 
Senior Colby Deaville broke up the no-hit bid with two outs in the sixth inning with a solid single to left. However, Deaville and Schulz were stranded on base.
 
In the seventh inning, senior Ryan Cupit led off with a double and scored on junior Austin Beech's RBI bunt single. However, the Warhawks stranded runners on second and third base to end the inning, trailing 5-1.
 
Deaville led off the eighth inning with a solo home run to left. Cupit picked up another double but was stranded on second to end the inning.
 
Cade Evans earned his third save by allowing only one run and struck out the side looking in the ninth.
 
Junior Reid Goleman (0-1) suffered the loss as the opener, pitching the first two innings, allowing two runs on three hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
 
Cupit and Deaville had two hits each for ULM. Alvarez had three hits and scored twice for Nicholls, while Felix and O'Connor had two RBIs each.
 
ULM and Nicholls play the rubber match of the series at 1 p.m. Sunday.