Dorothy Lewis
March 7, 2017
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March 7, 2017
If the past week is any indication, the Nicholls baseball team is ready for Southland Conference play.
The Colonels made a strong surge in the past seven days, solidifying their position as one of the teams to watch in the chase for the Southland Title, which begins this weekend at ballparks throughout the South.
First, the Colonels pushed LSU to the limit at Alex Box Stadium, falling 3-2 to the mighty Tigers on Mardi Gras Day. From there, Nicholls returned home and swept a three-game set with Brown, holding the Bears to just five combined runs in 27 innings of baseball.
With the wins, the Colonels will enter Southland Conference play with a 7-5 record, which includes a win over nationally-ranked UL-Lafayette, Power-5 conference foe Wake Forest and the tough loss at LSU.
Nicholls coach Seth Thibodeaux said the Colonels’ goal is to win the league and reach the NCAA Tournament – something the team hasn’t ever done in his tenure.
The coach believes this year’s group has enough talent and ambition to make that goal a reality. He said before the LSU game that he wants the Colonels to get accustomed to playing in high profile venues throughout the season.
“We’ve got to learn to compete and play well here because this could be a place where we play a Regional, which is part of our goal – to be able to compete in this type of location,” Thibodeaux said. “We’ve just got to get rid of the outside part of it and compete against the game – not so much our opponent every night, but the game itself. We want to play the game the right way and limit mistakes. We want to be really hard to score on and fight and scrap for a run here or there throughout the game.”
For the Colonels, a lot of those things the coach stated have become reality in the first couple weekends of the season.
Nicholls has been solid on the mound this season, owning a team 3.60 ERA for the season in 105 innings played. The Colonels have struck out 97 batters, compared to 35 walks – one of the better ratios in the Southland Conference.
At the top of the rotation, the Colonels are stout.
Fifth-year senior Mike Hanchar has been an absolute ace in the opening weeks of the season, owning a 2-0 record and a 0.83 ERA in 21.2 innings (five appearances and three starts).
Hanchar started last Tuesday’s game against LSU, allowing just one run over 4.1 innings pitched.
“He’s been really solid all season long,” Thibodeaux said.
But now, the Colonels are developing a little bit of depth, as well.
Behind Hanchar is 6-foot, 5-inch senior Cole Stapler, who is 1-1 with a 1.42 ERA this season. Stapler hasn’t allowed a run in two-straight starts after a rough outing in the opening weekend against Wake Forest.
After Stapler, Nicholls is looking to junior Cayden Hatcher to round out the weekend rotation. Hatcher has had some struggles this season, but his last start was his best – a 4.2-inning performance against Brown where he allowed just two runs.
In the bullpen, the Colonels are deep, led by sophomore Adam Tarver and junior Kyle Craft – a duo that’s allowed just three runs in 14 innings this season.
Thibodeaux said the Colonels have to possess quality arms annually, because that fits the type of club the coach wants to have.
The Colonels play in one of the deeper parks in the country, which makes a quality pitching staff very important.
“We have to be able to keep teams off the scoreboard,” Thibodeaux said. “We had to be a strong pitching club that really makes opponents struggle to get runs on the board.”
Offensively is where the Colonels are looking to get things going in the start of Southland play.
Through 12 games, Nicholls has just a .220 team batting average, which is one of the worst in the Southland Conference.
But the Colonels still scratch across slightly more than four runs per game because of a tough, gritty offensive mindset that focuses heavily on pressuring the opposing defense at every opportunity.
Nicholls has offset its low batting average by drawing 46 walks and having 17 batters get hit by pitches. The Colonels have also stolen 13 bases on the season.
Junior outfielder Chet Niehaus is Nicholls’ leading hitting, owning a .360 average early in the season. Kyle Knauth is the Colonels’ top power hitter. He has a team-high two home runs in 36 at-bats on the year.
Thibodeaux said he knows the Colonels will never be a “gorilla ball” team, but he does want the Colonels to get more efficient at getting on base so they can manufacture more runs throughout the game.
If Nicholls can control the flow of games, Thibodeaux said Nicholls can beat anyone it plays – regardless of the prestige of the opponent.
“If we can keep it a low-scoring game, we like our chances,” Thibodeaux said. “Against anybody.”
Nicholls does not play a midweek game this week.
The team will open Southland play on Friday night at Northwestern State University.
The Demons are 4-6 on the season.
Unlike Nicholls, Northwestern State will play two games this week before battling the Colonels – a two-game set at Kansas State.
The Nicholls baseball team has some big wins already in the early stages of the season, which has many thinking the team will do good things in Southland Conference play. Nicholls’ pitching has been on point in the first 12 games of the season. Coach Seth Thibodeaux said the key to the rest of the season will be finding some offense.
