TUCSON, Ariz. – The Arizona Wildcats hit three home runs Friday night to come from behind and beat Nicholls State 11-5 at Hi Corbett Field in the second game of the three-game set.
 
The Wildcats clinched the series win and improved to 15-10 on the season and 13-1 at home. Nicholls State, which came in having won three of its last four, dropped to 9-17 on the season.
 
Freshman shortstop Jacob Blas, sophomore third baseman Nick Quintana and sophomore second baseman Cameron Cannon all homered in the win for Arizona. The Wildcats entered the game with the Colonels with just four home runs as a team on the entire season. The home runs for Blas and Cannon were the first of their respective careers. Quintana has two in the last three games.
 
Nicholls jumped out to an early lead Friday, plating a pair in the first and then adding two more in the third to take a 4-0 lead. In the first, the Colonels loaded the bases with no outs for cleanup hitter Gage Teer, who lifted a sacrifice fly to center for the first run of the game. Later in the inning, second baseman Ethan Valdez drew a bases loaded walk to make it 2-0.
 
In the third, ninth-place hitter Brady Bell had a two-run single with one out to make it 4-0 and put the Wildcats in a hole early.
 
But Arizona responded with two runs in the bottom of the third to cut the deficit in half. Blas got the Wildcats on the board with a two-run home run to left field to score Mitchell Morimoto, who reached on an error earlier in the inning. Blas' home run hit the top of the scoreboard in left.
 
An inning later with the score still 4-2 in favor of Nicholls, catcher Cesar Salazar hit an RBI double to center to score Alfonso Rivas and make it 4-3. The double extended Salazar's on-base streak to 23 games, as the catcher has reached base safely in every game he's played in this season. Blake Paugh followed with a walk to load the bases with no outs. Morimoto and Matt Fraizer came through with back-to-back sacrifice flies to score Quintana and Salazar and give Arizona its first lead of the game at 5-4.
 
The lead didn't last long, however. The Colonels scored a run in the top of the fifth to tie it at five. But Arizona scored six runs over the next two innings to blow the game open and create some separation.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, Quintana came up with two outs and one on and homered to left to put Arizona up 7-5. One inning later, the Cats loaded the bases with two outs when Fraizer and Blas singled and Cal Stevenson walked. Cannon then launched a grand slam to left to clear the bases and make it 11-5 in favor of the home team.
 
That was plenty of support for freshman right-hander Jonathan Guardado, who entered in the fifth and tossed 2 2/3 hitless innings to earn the first win of his career. Jason Seever and Zach Stone each pitched a scoreless inning behind Guardado to ice the game.
 
Quintana finished 3 for 4 with two RBI and two runs scored. Blas extended his hitting streak to seven games and finished 2 for 4 with two RBI and two runs scored. Rivas also had a two-hit night, going 2 for 5 with two runs scored.
 
The Wildcats and Colonels will wrap up their three-game series Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. Right-hander Michael Flynn will draw the start for the Wildcats. Fellow righty Cayden Hatcher will start for Nicholls.