Terrebonne school board grants levee district passage
February 15, 2011
Resolution bid draws council fire
February 17, 2011
Former Nicholls State baseball coach Chip Durham started the turnaround.
New coach Seth Thibodeaux hopes to finish it.
After a successful stint as Durham’s assistant coach that saw the team rise from the bottom of the conference to the middle of the pack, it’s now Thibodeaux’s turn in the pressure cooker as the Colonels prepare for their first season without Durham, who resigned from the program last summer to pursue a job in the private sector.
After a few months on the job, Thibodeaux said he’s ready to try and take the program to an even better place, a process that will begin this weekend when the Colonels take on Grambling Friday night in Ruston.
“Our goal is to be as good as we can every, single day,” Thibodeaux said. “We don’t want to be a .500 club. We don’t want to be 26-26 or whatever it was last year. Our goal every year is always to win 40 games. Is it going to happen every year? No. It’s tough for any school to do that, but we want to always be competing for conference championships.”
To compete for conference titles, Thibodeaux knows Nicholls will have to have better offensive production than they did a year ago when the club hit for just a .291 average as a team – a number that ranked 10th in the 12-team Southland Conference.
Despite the lack of success last season, Thibodeaux said he expects more this year with the return of the team’s two top hitters, senior outfielder Bear Comer and junior third baseman Beau Faulk.
Those players each had batting averages above .350 a year ago, while also having on base percentages well above .400.
“This will be the best hitting team that’s been at Nicholls in a very long time,” Thibodeaux said. “Probably even as far back as the last 10 or 12 years. We’ve got some guys who can really swing it.”
Junior first baseman Blake Bergeron agreed and said the Colonels will be able to score runs in bunches in 2011.
Bergeron is expected to add some pop to Comar and Faulk’s on base percentages after having poked 18 extra base hits in 178 at bats last season.
“One through nine, everyone can swing it,” Bergeron said. “Everyone in our lineup’s got a lot of pop. I know I wouldn’t want to face our hitters right now.”
One of those hitters that pitchers might not want to face is senior outfielder Scott Moseley, who returns to the team after missing last season with a hip injury.
He hit .346 as a junior in 2009 and said he’s close to that form in anticipation of the new season.
“It feels real good to be back,” he said. “The hip’s feeling real good and I’m really excited to get the season started.”
On the mound, Nicholls will be looking to ease the loss of their top pitchers Clint Dempster and Tyler Minto, who combined to go 11-10 with ERAs below 4.00 last season.
Thibodeaux said the Colonels’ returnees are talented, despite their inexperience and he doesn’t expect a significant drop off on the mound.
“Are we going to have a guy like a Clint Dempster out there? I’m not real sure. That’s to be determined because we don’t have a lot of experience out there right now,” Thibodeaux said. “But I’m excited about what a guy like Seth Webster can do. He’s going to be our Friday night guy. I’m excited about what Brad Delatte can do. He’s our closer and he’s already proven in this conference. We’ve got a couple of other key ingredients on the mound that we’re excited about and I think we’ll be able to piece together a solid staff. … We’re very excited about what we can be. Those guys just need to go out there now and prove it.”
The Colonels will open their schedule this weekend in Ruston and will take on Grambling, Louisiana Tech and Southern Illinois as part of the three-day Louisiana Tech Classic.
From there, the Colonels also have home tilts with in-state foes UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe and also national power LSU, who comes to Thibodaux March 16.
Despite those matchups, it’s all about the Southland for the Colonels, who know winning those weekend series is their key to the NCAA Tournament.
That was a lesson Durham taught.
That’s a lesson Thibodeaux will continue to preach until the march to the top of the hill ends.
“Being under Coach Durham for the amount of time that he was here, I was fortunate enough to be able to understand what’s needed or what’s expected at Nicholls,” Thibodeaux said. “I want my guys to be the best that they can be. We want our guys to win championships on the field and in the classroom. We want to be the best at everything we do and they believe in it and they want it, too. When you have a group of guys like that, anything’s possible.”
Nicholls State outfielder Bear Comar attempts a bunt last season. Comar is one of the heralded returnees on an offense first-year coach Seth Thibodeaux is excited about coming into the start of the season Friday. CASEY GISCLAIR
