“Hitting their stride”

With all the talk of intangibles in sports, sometimes mastering the most fundamental part of a game can carry a team to success.

For the Nicholls State softball team, that has proven to be true. Nearly halfway through its Southland Conference schedule, the Colonels lead the conference in hitting (.332) and runs scored (171). They are second in homeruns (29), and three Colonels’ players rank among the top four individual hitters in the conference.

Most important, though, is that the Colonels sit atop the conference with a 7-1 record.

Impressive for a team that, in preseason polls, coaches pegged as the sixth best team in the Southland Conference.

Not that complicated, right? Hit the ball and win.

“It’s a different mindset,” said senior Leah Peterson. “You’re not going up wanting just to get on base. You go up there and everybody wants to be the person that makes that hit that scores that run. We’re not looking for walks, and we’re not looking for base hits. Everybody wants to get up there and really, really hit the ball.”

The “different” mindset has worked for Peterson. On the year she has a .414 average, good for fourth in the conference. Teammate Kat Harrell (.567) leads the conference, and Jacqueline Pacheco (.424) is third in the conference.

Overall, the Colonels have six players hitting over .300.

“They’ve done a lot of work,” said head coach Jenny Parsons. “When we teach hitting, we teach a plan. We teach a strategy, and we stick to it. They believe in it, and when you believe in something so firmly, good things happen.”

The strategy that Parsons speaks of is simple—when you’re at the plate swing the bat. “We’re an aggressive hitting team,” said Parsons. “We don’t take a lot of called third strikes. We don’t take a lot of strikes period. We’re up there to hit.”

Sometimes that strategy can hurt, though. “We’re really aggressive, and you can tell by hitting,” said Parsons. “But also, you can tell by our strikeouts. We don’t have the most strikeouts, but we swing the bat.”

While the effective hitting is spread throughout the lineup, the impact is most greatly felt at the top of the lineup. Harrell, Kodi Butler, Peterson and Pacheco lead off the Colonels lineup. Butler is hitting .345.

Harrell said having success at the top of the lineup is important to success throughout the game. “It does help us,” said Harrell. “We try to score first, and try to win the innings. I think it makes the other team think a lot, when you start the game out with a lot of good hitters.”

Parsons agreed with Harrell’s sentiments. “It’s nice knowing that your leadoff hitter is going to get on base 70 or 60 percent of the time,” said Parsons. “It’s nice knowing that your No. 2 and No. 3 hitters are hitting over .300 and they’re going to drive runs in.

“You come to expect that. They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now, and … believe they can win every game they’re in.”

She added that the sport’s evolution has necessitated a more “offensive” approach. “Softball’s changing its ways,” said Parsons. “If you don’t have a top pitcher like an SEC or Big 12 pitcher, it’s an offensive sport. We’ve done a lot over the last two or three years to transition our hitting into more of an offensive team.”

That is not to say that the Colonels are not good on the mound, as Parsons pointed to the contributions of pitchers Krystalin Ensminger and Jessica Barksdale.

“The pitchers and catchers have done a phenomenal job, this year,” the coach said. “If you look at the ERAs for the last two years, and you look at our main ERAs this year, we’re no longer in the bottom third of the conference. That’s another reason why we’re winning games.”

While other coaches in the conference pegged the Colonels as the sixth-best team in the conference, the team entered the year with higher expectations. And although they are off to an impressive start, Parsons says they are still fighting to reach their goals.

“We haven’t lived up to anything, yet,” she said. “We’re on the right direction. But our expectation is to win the conference regular-season title.”

Harrell said last year’s qualification for the conference tournament kept the team hungry. “We got a taste of the conference tournament,” she said, “and we knew what we had to do to make it there and win it this time. We’re not settling for anything less.”

Peterson added, “The polls came out in the pre-season, and they said that we were sixth. It fired us all up. We know we’re better than that.”

And so far, as a team, they have been better. “It’s the entire lineup,” she added. “I think everybody is confident that it’s a whole team effort, and one through nine in the lineup, somebody’s going to get it done.”

Photo by Doug Keese * NSU * Leah Peterson slides home for a run, earlier in the season. Peterson has played a key role in Nicholls No. 1 hitting team this season. The Lady Colonels rank first in the Southland Conference in hitting (.332) and runs scored (171).

Doug Keese