Hong Kong offers a Houma treat
June 2, 2015Curry an inspiration to our youth
June 2, 2015
There was a time in the not too distant past when a 34-19-1 season for the Nicholls baseball team would be heralded as an unquestioned success – a cause for jubilation from the program’s loyal fans.
But that was then. This is now.
Things have been different on the baseball diamond lately in Thibodaux, and the Colonels have become quite accustomed to winning 30-plus games in recent years under coach Seth Thibodeaux. As a result, they’ve also gotten comfortable being a program on the upswing – a club that is annually near the top-half of the Southland Conference.
So with most of the program renovation complete, only one major goal remains unscathed: Winning the Southland and punching a ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Yes, Thibodeaux said he is pleased with some of the things the Colonels did in 2015. He boasts that the 34 wins, solid winning percentage and individual accolades that the team attained are nice. But the coach said Nicholls’ 0-2 stay at the Southland Conference Tournament to close the year will keep fire in the Colonels’ chests throughout the summer and forward into 2016, where Nicholls is expected to field another strong club – one that just might break the ice and get the team into those NCAAs.
“We did some great things,” Thibodeaux said. “But I’d be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that our eyes right now are on bigger and better things. Our goals right now are to take the steps to be a more complete team. We want to compete for bigger and better things. We want to make sure that this week next year, we’re not finished with our season. We want to still be playing. We want to be in a Regional. We want to compete for, and win championships. We won’t stop until that happens.”
Right now, Nicholls is already pitching at a championship level.
For a second-straight season, the Colonels were dominant on the mound, posting a SLC-leading 2.47 staffwide earned run average for the year.
Junior ace Justin Sinibaldi was the hammer of the Colonels’ staff, owning a 10-1 record with a 1.40 ERA. But fellow starters Grant Borne, Ryan Deemes and Marc Frazier were just as good and proved capable of getting easy outs. Borne had a 1.48 ERA, and limited opponents to just a .199 batting average against him. Deemes and Frazier combined for eight wins.
In the bullpen, Nicholls rode reliable arms like closer Stuart Holmes and relieves Robbie Petty and Jason McDonald to success. Holmes had 15 saves on the season.
Thibodeaux said people often ask him how the Colonels have so much success on the mound. The coach said there’s no pixie dust or magic wand responsible for the success – it’s just a product of a healthy marriage and buy-in between coaches and players.
“There’s no magic wand over here. There’s no magic act taking place,” Thibodeaux said with a laugh. “That solid, top-quality pitching has just become an attitude and a belief here for us. This year’s staff set the goal at the beginning of the season to be better than last year’s staff, and I think there’s a competition that breeds success. I think next year’s group will have high expectations, but I think they, too, will want to be better than we were this year to keep pushing forward.”
One thing that’s made that pitching success possible is a fruitful player development program. Thibodeaux applauded the work of Nicholls’ Strength and Conditioning Coach Greg Carrasquillo, touting that he make the Colonels’ hurlers stronger each year. From there, Pitching Coach and Recruiting Coordinator Chris Prothro creates a throwing program that works best for the player to bring out his talent.
Thibodeaux used Holmes’ success as an example. The Colonels recruited the closer out of high school four years ago, but he opted to enroll at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. After two years with that program, he signed with Nicholls and has been a Colonel the past two seasons. When the Colonels got him, he was a soft-tossing crafty lefty who threw in the mid-80s. In his final collegiate outing, Holmes fired a pitch that hit 93 mph on the radar gun.
“Our plan of attack on good arms has been awesome,” Thibodeaux said. “Our attitude and commitment here is excellent. We have people who want to get better and coaches who push them to take the steps to get better.”
Now, the push for Nicholls is to enhance its offense and defense to be a championship club in all realms. Offensively, the Colonels hit .264 as a team this year – a number that is up from the .248 teamwide average that Nicholls had in 2014. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that despite having more runners on base this year, Nicholls’ runs per game dropped from 4.6 in 2014 to 4.0 this season. Those woes were huge in the SLC Tournament when the Colonels had several opportunities to score, but couldn’t always crank that key base hit to break through and get on the scoreboard.
On defense, the story was the same. Nicholls did made strides, especially considering that the team had a whole new infield. But the Colonels were 10th out of 13 SLC teams in fielding percentage. That contributed to the team allowing 50 unearned runs on the season. In the Southland Conference Tournament, the Colonels committed seven errors in two games.
“We have to be an all-around club,” Thibodeaux said. “We have to play at a championship area in every facet of the game. We need to keep our pitching at the level it is now and beyond, and we have to continue to push to get our hitting and our defense to that level. We believe in the kids we have here. We’re confident that’s going to be the case next year.”
Thibodeaux mentioned personnel. The Colonels do have a great chunk of its core coming back. Nicholls will graduate nine players – many of whom played a key role on the 2015 club. But the Colonels do return a lot of their position players, including Kyle Reese and Justin Holt – both of whom hit above .300 this season.
Thibodeaux said on paper, it looks like Nicholls can again field a solid, top-flight club. But solid, top-flight clubs don’t cut it anymore in Thibodaux.
The coach said Nicholls will stop at nothing to attain a championship.
“We won’t rest until we get there,” Thibodeaux said. “On paper, next year will be the best club that we’ve had here. We’ve just got to stay healthy. If we stay healthy, I know we’ll put the work in to be in a position to get it done.”
Nicholls State University pitcher Justin Sinibaldi fires a pitch during a game this season. The Colonels’ baseball team had another solid season in 2015, posting a winning record for a second-straight season, including a high seed in the Southland Conference Tournament. But the Colonels enter the offseason with frowns on their faces after going 0-2 in the SLC Tournament, which ended the team’s hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.
