Nicholls’ victory no fluke

Most of the time when little brother beats big brother in sports, it’s because big brother had an off day or simply wasn’t taking the game as seriously as he should.

Such was the case at Alex Box Stadium on April 15, 2009, when Nicholls defeated the mighty LSU baseball team by a 3-1 margin.

The Tigers were a fearsome bunch in that year – they later rebounded to win the College World Series. Nicholls, on the other hand, was rebuilding.

The Colonels finished the season just 19-32, but one of those 19 wins came at The Box, as Nicholls outplayed its mighty foe. The Tigers were disinterested on that night, and it showed. They played a terrible, terrible baseball game, and Nicholls capitalized and stole victory from the eventual national champs.

I’m not taking anything away from the Colonels’ win, but that’s how it occurs most of the time in a major upset in the sporting landscape. And this certainly was the case in Nicholls’ 2009 win over LSU.

But in sports, there still is that odd occasion where little brother tops big brother because little brother has put in the work to catch up with his older sibling and is now nipping at his heels in terms of competitiveness. On these occasions, the victory isn’t so much a fluke anymore, but is now something that would happen fairly regularly if the teams met 10, 15 or 20 times.

To me, this is exactly what happened this past Wednesday at Alex Box Stadium when history repeated itself and Nicholls trumped the mighty Tigers 6-3.

Simply put – the Colonels are on the way up, and it was awfully hard to tell last week which team on that baseball diamond was “supposed” to win that game, because Nicholls outplayed LSU in just about every facet of the game. That equated in a total team victory – a win that everyone in the Colonels’ baseball community should cling to and be proud of, because this was no fluke. This was a thorough victory.

There is no denying that if college baseball were the stock market Nicholls would be the stock savvy investors would be buying in large amounts.

The Colonels have steadily grown their program in the past several seasons under coach Seth Thibodeaux, turning what was once an annual Southland cellar dweller into a team that is always a contender to reach the Southland Conference Tournament.

That turnaround has taken a ton of work, and it’s occurred on both the field and in the classroom. Thibodeaux would be the first person to tell you he, his staff and his players have deposited gallons

of blood, sweat and tears to make it happen. But the transformation is complete and the Colonels’ baseball team is fully reformed in terms of talent, attitude and expectations.

And now, Thibodeaux wants more.

The beautiful thing about Seth Thibodeaux is he doesn’t want to be merely a middle of the pack Southland Conference team. He wants to win the whole dang thing. The Colonels’ coach is one of the most competitive guys I’ve ever met. He wants to ascend Nicholls to the point where they are in the conversation to win the league every, single season.

When Nicholls short on Championship Weekend, he wants to have enough wins in his pocket to receive an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Once there, he wants to have a team capable of winning NCAA Regionals, if not beyond. He doesn’t want to annually concede that LSU is the best team in Louisiana. He wants to field a scrappy club that can compete with the Tigers and UL-Lafayette on any given season – a team capable of beating each club in high-stakes games.

So here we are in the present – one in which it surely looks like that vision is slowly becoming a reality. The Colonels posted a 32-win season in 2014, while going a remarkable 21-9 in Southland Conference play. Nicholls’ NCAA Tournament hopes were derailed a bit last year when its ace pitcher was ruled academically ineligible right before the team left for the Southland Conference Tournament.

Without him, the Colonels stumbled and lost two-straight games.

Because of that stinging exit, Thibodeaux said his team worked harder than ever this past offseason to take the next step in 2015. The coach said his players busted their tails in the weight room this offseason to get ready for another run.

So far in 2015, it looks like those efforts have paid off.

The Colonels opened the 2015 season by taking two of three games from Stony Brook – the Northeastern baseball power is now a household name in Louisiana because they reached the College World Series a few years ago by beating LSU.

Taking two of three from those guys is impressive. Winning the final two games of the series by a 14-1 margin is something only pretty good clubs can pull off.

Then, of course, this past week, they carried that momentum into Alex Box and walloped LSU. Nicholls took an early 6-0 lead in that game, and held on late. They thwarted several scoring chances from the Tigers to secure the win.

Where things go from here, it remains to be seen. The Colonels have a lot of work to do to have the regular season they want to have.

But something about this 2015 win felt different than the team’s upset in 2009.

This victory felt more legitimate. This one felt less like a fluke.

After all, six years have passed since that first win, and the Colonels have had a lot of time to right their program and change some things around.

Suddenly little brother isn’t so little anymore. Suddenly, he seems capable of becoming a power – a team capable of making these upsets happen often.

CASEY GISCLAIR

The Times Sports Editor