LSU wins SEC Tournament, moves to Regionals
May 28, 2013
Defense the focus of Saints’ mini-camps
May 28, 2013
Nicholls State baseball coach Seth Thibodeaux spent this past weekend recruiting – checking in on some of the state’s best talent at the Louisiana High School Coaches’ Association senior all-star baseball series.
He’d have preferred to be coaching his team at the Southland Conference Tournament.
But with nine, one-run conference losses, that wasn’t in the cards for the 2013 season, and the Colonels missed their conference tournament and limped to a 26-29 record.
Despite the disappointing campaign, Thibodeaux said he believes the Colonels are close to turning the corner and making a push for a conference championship.
Thibodeaux said he believes the lessons the team learned this year will pay off next year, as the team attempts to break the ice and win close ballgames within the league.
“This was a tough luck season, but at the same time, I hate to say it like that, because I believe that the best teams create their own luck,” Thibodeaux said. “We did some good things here and there, but it definitely wasn’t a consistent season. … We shouldn’t have been in the situation that we were in, because we should have taken care of our opportunities before then, but ultimately, we are excited about the players we have coming back and the players we have coming in. We think we will be able to make the plays we didn’t make this year to make a run at competing for a championship – not just a seed in the conference tournament.”
Close losses were the theme of the entire 2013 campaign for Nicholls.
The Colonels opened the season with a 6-2 overall record – a hot streak that included a series victory with Towson and a mid-week victory against Tulane.
But from the early going of the Southland Conference slate, Nicholls had trouble sealing the deal in close games.
The Colonels won their first Southland Conference game, a 3-1 win against Stephen F. Austin.
After a blowout defeat in the Saturday game, Nicholls lost the rubber game with SFA, 9-8, in extra innings.
The next two weekends, the Colonels were swept – by Southeastern and by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Four of those six losses were also by one run.
“We just need to find a way to be able to get over that hump and make winning plays and to be able to make that winning pitch,” Thibodeaux said. “When we are able to get the clutch hits and to win the close games, that’s when it’ll turn around for us. … We lost nine games by one run in the league. If we win a bunch of those games, we’re all of a sudden competing to be one of the top seeds in the league.”
The Colonels’ initial struggles left the team with a 1-8 record in Southland play, and a major hole to dig out of to chase the No. 8 seed in the eight-team conference tournament.
Nicholls recovered and played better baseball in the second half of the conference season – highlighted by a three-game sweep of McNeese. That improved play pushed the Colonels to the final weekend of the year with a chance to squeak into the field.
But those hopes were dashed when the Colonels lost the final two games of their season-ending series with Lamar.
Predictably, each loss was by one run.
Thibodeaux said he is proud of the way his team responded from the 1-8 start to make the back-half of the season interesting.
He added that he believes the Colonels just ran out of gas after having to treat almost the entire second-half of the season as “must-win” games.
“When you get behind so quickly like we had to do, you end up fighting your tail off to make up ground,” Thibodeaux said. “When that happens, it changes your mindset and everything is up hill. … We’re not making excuses, because we did this to ourselves, but when you’re in a situation like that, it is stressing and it definitely takes a lot more energy out of the guys. I think toward the end of the year, we were just worn out. It was like we were playing playoff games for more than a month.”
Even with the disappointing season, Thibodeaux said he is excited for the future.
The coach said the lessons the team learned in the tough losses of 2013 will go a long way in allowing the Colonels to get over the hump next season.
Thibodeaux said he is excited about the team’s returnees, led by Tyler Duplantis, Leo Vargas and Philip Lyons. Thibodeaux said he also looks forward to the incoming players that have signed to be a part of the program in the future.
Missing the Southland Conference Tournament for a second-straight season is not acceptable to the Colonels coach.
He said he doesn’t just want to reach the field – he wants to win it.
Going into the future, Thibodeaux believes the Colonels can do just that.
“I think we proved this year that we were able to be a team close to contention, because we were in so many ballgames,” Thibodeaux said. “I think next year, we’ll learn to make a few more of those plays. I’m excited. I like where we’re going.”
