Colonels trying to rebound from slow start

Cold, damp and windy isn’t usually a recipe for ideal baseball weather.

For the Nicholls State baseball team, it was just what the doctor ordered last Wednesday.

After struggling for the better part of March, Nicholls closed the month out on a strong note, blasting Alcorn State by a 15-1 margin.

While some may have viewed that game as a hump game to get into and out of the poor weather conditions as fast as possible, it was more for Nicholls, it was an opportunity to turn around their season.

“Before the game, I knew we were going to be really successful today,” Colonels coach Seth Thibodeaux said. “Because they came ready to win a baseball game. We worked really hard in pregame and they didn’t let the weather get to them, didn’t let anything affect them. You know, the rain could have gotten to them, pulling the tarp could have gotten to them, but it didn’t.”

The reason for the sense of urgency among the Colonels is the slow start the team has endured to begin the Southland Conference season.

Nicholls started the Southland season losing eight of their first nine games, which left them in last place in the league.

That start is puzzling to some, because the Colonels were expected to be one of a handful of teams to compete for a conference championship.

“This is just our guys pressing,” Thibodeaux said. “I put a lot of pressure on our guys at the beginning of the season to fight for a conference championship and it’s not anything about them not playing hard or not playing the right way, but they are just putting themselves in tough situations.”

One of the “tough situations” Nicholls has experienced is the inability to record timely hits with runners in scoring position.

As a team, Nicholls is scoring just more than four runs per game and is hitting with a .247 team batting average.

But change was in the cold, brisk Thibodaux air as the Colonels pounded a season-high 15 hits, while also stealing seven bases.

Colonels senior outfielder Bear Comer said that is the team Nicholls is capable of being offensively.

It’s also the team Thibodeaux expected when he proclaimed in the preseason that Nicholls would field one of the best offensive units in the history of the program.

“We had a tough start, but I believe we’re about to get real hot here in the next few weeks,” Comer said. “If we continue to hit and play like we did [against Alcorn], I think we’ll be in real good shape soon in conference.”

Against the Braves, 10 different Colonels recorded RBIs, which Thibodeaux said will go a long way in changing the karma around the team as they try and turn around their season.

“I was happy to get some guys in there and to get them some playing time, while also resting a few guys, as well,” Thibodeaux said. “This is huge for us.”

With the Colonels bats pinging baseballs all over the gaps, Nicholls’ pitchers also got much-needed reform, especially closer Brad Delatte.

After struggling for most of March, the previously dynamite closer tossed three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, while striking out three.

Getting Delatte back in form is critical to any attempt Nicholls makes to turn its season around.

“Brad Delatte is one of the best arms in our conference,” Thibodeaux said. “And when we went through a little two week lull, so did he. And it’s because he was pressing. … I’m happy to get him in a different situation and to get him throwing strikes again, because for us to be successful.”

With the closer in form, Thibodeaux hopes to pair him with junior pitcher Seth Webster, who has been the anchor of the team this season.

After missing two seasons with an injury, Webster has stormed back, posting an ERA below 2 in his first six starts.

He said that he understands the team’s offensive struggles, but added the hits will come.

Webster believes it’s a two-prong formula to turning Nicholls’ season around.

“Pitch and play defense,” he said. “That’s the big thing. Like Coach Thibodeaux says, the hits are going to come. As long as you pitch and play defense all of the time, you’re going to give yourself a chance to win.”

Do that, and sunnier skies will likely await the Colonels.

There’s nowhere to go but up.