E.D. White riding hot pitching to strong baseball start
March 21, 2012
Hornets reach deal with state; will remain until 2024
March 21, 2012
Nicholls State baseball coach Seth Thibodeaux remembers a time when Nicholls had to play perfect just to compete in a given game.
My, how things have changed. Now, the Colonels are winning without playing their best baseball.
With coaches and players touting that Nicholls is still weeks away from its peak, the Colonels are still rattling off wins, having won nine of their past 13 games, including three of their first six Southland Conference games – an improvement from the 0-6 mark the team engineered in 2011.
“It’s getting there,” Thibodeaux said. “It’s still not where we want it to be, but that’s a good thing. That’s a positive thing. We’re not playing our best ball right now. Even though we’ve won [nine] out of [13], we’re nowhere near what I think we can be. … Succeeding in the standings while having plenty of ways to improve is an exciting thing for us.”
The first place Thibodeaux would like to see improvement within his team is defense.
Nicholls currently ranks No. 11 out of 12 Southland Conference teams in fielding percentage, posting just a .950 mark, while having already committed 40 errors and allowed 45 runners to steal bases.
A total of seven players on the Colonels roster have committed multiple errors on the season – a stat that needs to be fixed, according to sophomore infielder Philip Lyons.
“We’re either just missing balls or making bad throws. We need to just focus a little bit more on making the easy plays,” Lyons said. “If we make the easy plays, the hard plays will come on their own.”
Thibodeaux agreed and took it a step further, adding that Nicholls’ close wins would turn into blowouts if the team could shed a couple errors off every weekend series.
“That’s killing us,” Thibodeaux said. “Giving up those cheap, unearned runs – that’s the only reason why teams have been able to even hang with us the last 10 games.”
Forget keeping teams close, the errors cost the Colonels a game, as well.
In Nicholls’ Sunday tilt with Southeastern two weekends ago, the Colonels led in the late innings
“I’d never seen that emotion like I did from my team all night Sunday and part of the day on Monday. I could tell they were down and they angry – but in a good way. It all goes back to when was the last time you’ve seen us be disappointed about beating someone two out of three? That’s a positive thing. It means our head is in the right place.
“I guarantee you next time we’re in that situation we’ll be able to take care of it.”
So far, it appears Nicholls used their off night to their benefit and have committed just four errors in their past four games, including just two in this past weekend’s series with Sam Houston State.
“It’s getting better,” Thibodeaux said.
Also getting better is the play of senior pitcher Seth Webster, who struggled in the opening month of the year after being named the Southland Conference’s Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
Webster didn’t make it into the seventh inning in any of his opening four starts to the season. The fifth time was the charm, as the righty tossed a complete game in Friday night’s win.
“There’s no doubt Seth will have his time,” Thibodeaux said. “We’re still very early in this thing and we still fully expect him to have a great season.”
“We know what Seth can do,” junior closer Jordan McCoy said. “His record speaks for itself. He’s working hard and he’ll get everything back where he wants it to be.”
While waiting, McCoy and the Colonels’ bullpen have proven more than capable of picking up the slack.
Nicholls has three relievers (Donnie White, Merrick Ardoin and Brad Delatte) with ERAs below 2 with five or more appearances.
McCoy is outside of that category, but does have five saves, which ranks among the best in the Southeast.
“When you’re as deep as we’ve been so far this year, it’ll be hard to beat us,” McCoy said. “It’s hard to keep up with a team that has the number of arms that we have.”
With the defense capable of stringing together zeros throughout the game, the Colonels’ offensive agenda is simple – manufacture runs.
Nicholls is among the top base stealing teams in America, having recorded 56 stolen bags on the season.
Lyons said the team’s strategy is to be aggressive on the base paths, knowing that if they get a couple runs early, their bullpen will ride home to victory.
“That’s definitely a part of our plan,” Lyons said. “We don’t even need a two or three run lead. We feel like those guys down there are confident enough at doing their thing that they can hold just a one-run lead.”
There’s been some good, some bad and some things in the middle.
But the Colonels are still getting wins without playing their A-ball – that’s a situation Nicholls will take anytime.
It sure beats the alternative – needing to play perfect just to have a chance.
“It’s good to not be playing our best ball right now, but still be getting victories,” Lyons said.”We can get a lot better. That’s a good thing. We don’t want to play our best ball in March. Let’s save that for May.”
“We’re so close,” Thibodeaux said. “We’re inching our way there. We’re just getting to the point now where we’re being consistent and are playing good, consistent, clean baseball. If we can keep stringing that together and playing as a team, we know how good we can be.”
Nicholls State pitcher Patrick Shreve tosses a pitch during a game last season.
