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CONWAY, Ark. _ The Nicholls Colonels salvaged the final game of a Southland Conference series on Sunday, beating the University of Central Arkansas Bears 2-1 in a pitching-dominated game at Bear Stadium.

UCA (8-12) won the first two games of the weekend to win their second straight SLC series and improve to 4-2 in league play. Nicholls is 11-10 and 3-3.

The Colonels broke a 1-1 tie with the game-winning run in the seventh inning on a pair of hits, a stolen base and a hit batter. The Bears got runners on first and third in the eighth inning but stranded both runners. Senior Tyler Smith led off then ninth inning with a walk but was also stranded. UCA had just four hits while Nicholls finished with six.

UCA's pitching staff struck out 15 Colonels, giving it 41 strikeouts for the three-game series. Starter Mark Moyer struck out five, junior reliever Brad Verel added seven more in 3 1/3 innings and sophomore Gavin Stone finished up with three more over the final 2 1/3 innings. Stone also struck out eight in a three-inning relief stint in Friday's win.

The Colonels put up the game's first run in the third inning off Moyer. The Bears loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning but could not match the score. They did in the sixth when Jay Anderson reached on a throwing error, advanced to second on a wild pitch, to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Josh Ragan's RBI double to right.

Verel got the loss despite allowing just one hit and one run and striking out seven. Tyler Theriot, the third of six Nicholls pitchers, got the win and Matthew Harrison picked up the save.

The Bears host Oral Roberts at 6 p.m. Tuesday and Stephen F. Austin for another SLC series next weekend.