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        NEW ORLEANS — It was a home doubleheader Tuesday for the relaunch of Xavier University of Louisiana baseball. But Co Co Simoneaux turned it into a tripleheader.
        Simoneaux, XULA's leadoff batter, tripled in the bottom of the first inning in both games, and he scored after his second three-bagger to support a complete game by right-hander Nigel Mayfield in a 4-1 victory against Bryant & Stratton.
        Bryant & Stratton — from Albany, N.Y., and a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association — never trailed in a 5-3 victory against NAIA member XULA in the opening game. Wesley Barrow Stadium, about five miles as the crow flies from the XULA campus, was the site of the doubleheader, XULA's first games in this sport since 1960.
        Next for XULA will be a three-game series in Tuscaloosa, Ala., against Stillman. The teams will play a nine-inning game at 1:30 p.m. Friday and a noon doubleheader — two seven-inning games — Saturday.
        Simoneaux could not recall hitting two triples in a day or game prior to Tuesday. He hit his first-game triple to right-center field and the other to left-center.
        "You shoot the gap, and then you run like crazy," said Simoneaux — a junior from Port Allen, La., a graduate of Brusly High School and a transfer from NCAA Division I Southern University — of his recipe for triples. "I was a little tired after those hits."
        Simoneaux was tired and frustrated in the opener. He was stranded on third base in the first inning after Bryant & Stratton starter Ryan Catyb struck out Courtland Posey, Tristan Rodriguez and Calabe Collins.
        The Bobcats — 1-6 after the doubleheader — never lost the first-game lead after a four-run second inning that included Rocco DeVito's three-run double to right-center. XULA answered with three runs in the third — Jose Fulgencio and Antonio Rodriguez walked with the bases loaded, then a wild pitch brought home another run — but couldn't shift the momentum.
        Simoneaux made it home quickly in the second game when XULA's second batter, Antonio Rodriguez, hit a sacrifice fly to left field. The Bobcats tied the score on Jayson Libert's second-inning single, but XULA took the lead for good in the third when Fulgencio's bases-loaded sacrifice fly scored Antonio Rodriguez, who had been hit by a pitch. XULA made it 3-1 in that inning on Jeremy Moore's RBI single.
        XULA scored its final run when Fulgencio delivered an RBI single through the right side in the fifth.
        Mayfield faced the minimum nine batters in the final three innings. The only baserunner during that time was erased on a double play to end the sixth.
        "I tapped a zone and let the guys behind me do the work," said Mayfield, a right-hander who had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow in 2018. "We're family. There's a lot of trust on this team."
        XULA head coach Adrian Holloway was among the most trusting. "I was not surprised by the way Nigel pitched," Holloway said. "He's always a tough competitor. He pitched a great game."
        U.S. District Court Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle, a 1971 XULA graduate and a member of the XULA Board of Trustees, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Left-hander Blair Frederick, a New Orleanian who started his college career at LSU, threw the first game pitch, a ball, at 4:10 p.m. CST to DeVito. Moments later, Frederick struck out DeVito on a 2-2 pitch.
        "My heart's still pumping," Holloway said after the second game, which ended at 9:18 p.m. "I could coach a third game right now. I'm still wired up. Normally I sleep pretty well, but I'm going to be up for a while tonight thinking about these games. That first loss will bother me — we left too many men on on base — but I'll be over it by tomorrow."