Colonels await SLC Tourney

In many ways, it has been a monumental season for the Nicholls State baseball team. 

The Colonels are hoping it doesn’t have to end soon. 

With a three-game sweep of rival McNeese State this past weekend, Nicholls wrapped up its first 30-win season since 1993, and its first winning season outright since 2002. In doing so, the Colonels (32-24 overall) finished Southland Conference regular-season play with a 21-9 mark – the most conference victories in school history. 

Now it’s onto the Southland Tournament, which opens Wednesday with Nicholls facing McNeese in a rematch at 4 p.m. at Bear Stadium on the campus of Central Arkansas. 

Nicholls heads into the tournament as the No. 2 seed, and unlike years past when Colonels teams had to scratch and claw just to make the eight-team field, this year’s team expects to compete for the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Colonels haven’t advanced that far since 1998.

Coach Seth Thibodeaux’s message to the team as it prepares to enter the Southland Tournament is to savor the moment. He said there’s no pressure on the team because they’re a higher seed. 

“This is a fun time,” Thibodeaux said. “This is a great time in these young men’s lives and a golden opportunity to represent our university. They’ll be hungry and ready for it. These guys had to sweep a good opponent (McNeese) just to have a chance at a high seed and they swept.”

Indeed, the Colonels come into the tournament on quite a roll. The team won each of its last five regular-season conference games and has won six of its last seven games overall. 

A big reason for that is pitching. The Colonels’ staff has been the school’s best in years and their 2.59 staff ERA was far and away the best in the conference this season. 

Left-handers Taylor Byrd and Grant Borne and right-hander Brandon Jackson have formed arguably the toughest weekend rotation in the Southland, and the team’s bullpen has been equally strong behind setup men Marc Frazier, Stuart Holmes and others, and closer Marc Picciola. 

Against McNeese, the Colonels’ staff combined to hold the Cowboys to three runs over the entire series. Byrd and Borne each pitched into the eighth inning in their respective starts, and Jackson helped the team finish off the sweep with six innings of one-run ball in a no-decision on Saturday.

“We’re really confident in our whole pitching staff,” Byrd said, the team’s Friday night starter who is 8-3 with a 1.92 ERA in 14 starts. “Anybody that comes out, they’re going to compete and throw strikes. Everybody has bought in and Coach (Chris) Prothro has done a really good job with our pitching staff.” 

The Colonels’ bullpen, meanwhile, continues to excel on its own. The bullpen allowed just one run over 5 2/3 innings in the McNeese series, and for the season Nicholls relievers have a 2.61 ERA in 193 innings combined. 

“It’s always big to have a good bullpen and we feel like we’ve got some guys who can really throw it,” said Picciola, the team’s closer with 11 saves and a 1.67 ERA. “It’s really just about going out there and doing our job, throwing strikes and throwing zeroes. We’re a really tight group — Stuart Holmes, John Satriano, Jason McDonald, Marc Frazier and myself.” 

At the plate, the Colonels’ bats have come around after a slow start, and shortstop Leo Vargas, the team’s best hitter for average, said the lineup has gained confidence in itself as the season has worn on. 

“We’re no longer hoping it happens, we’re expecting it to happen,” said Vargas, a .302 hitter this season. “We’re going up to the plate with a lot more confidence than we did early on in the season, and that’s always big in this game.”

While seniors such as Vargas and outfielder Keith Cormier have carried the team at the plate, Nicholls has found some offensive output elsewhere as other players have begun to step up of late, including junior catcher Christian Correa and sophomore Seth Stevens.

Correa used last weekend’s series against McNeese to hit his first home run, and Stevens added two hits including an RBI double in Saturday’s finale. 

“Correa has moved up from the 8-spot in our lineup to the 5-spot and is starting to drive in some serious runs for us,” said Thibodeaux. “He’s been a big RBI guy for us down the stretch. Stevens has done the same thing and we’ve had a pinch hitter in Justin Smith who’s done some good things for us as well.” 

Even though they lost a chance to clinch a share of the conference title when Sam Houston State defeated Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Saturday, the Colonels are nonetheless one of the hottest teams heading into the Southland Tournament. 

The hope now is that the team can put it all together in Conway and clinch the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament rather than rely on an at-large bid somewhere. 

“You’d rather go in playing good than not playing good obviously,” Thibodeaux said. “Pitching and playing defense is the key ultimately for us to continue to play at a championship level and the right mindset. At tournament time, you throw everything else away. You’re starting all over and it’s fresh. It’s about heart and soul and grit and desire, and it’s what this team is made of.” 

LSU SWEEPS, READY 

FOR SEC TOURNAMENT 

Like Nicholls, the LSU baseball team is in prime position to make a conference tournament push.

The Tigers swept Auburn this past weekend, hammering the conference rival in three-straight games to earn the victories.

With the sweep, LSU jumped to No. 3 in the SEC standings, which earned the team a first-round bye in this week’s SEC Tournament.

The Tigers’ strong weekend also went a long way in assuring that LSU would be a host site for a Regional in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, which begins next week.

In the SEC Tournament, LSU will await the winner of No. 6 Vanderbilt and No. 11 Tennessee. 

Those teams played yesterday morning with no score at press-time. 

The LSU game will be today at 10:30 a.m.

THIBODEAUX