Currently ranked second in the Southland Conference, the Nicholls State University softball team prepares to close out their season with high expectations for post-season play.

The Colonels have two games left in the regular season, and will compete in a three-game series at Southeastern this weekend followed by another three-game series against Lamar at home. In the 2015-2016 season, the Colonels are 33-14 (16-4 SLC) with a home record of 15-1.

Head coach Angel Santiago contributes the success of his team and their current eight-game win streak to a multitude of factors, including senior leadership and taking things one step at a time.

“Basically, the conference standings give us no choice but to keep us on our win path, and this is why we play the game anyway,” Santiago said. “It’s a perfect storm of patience, opportunity, time, dedication, luck and commitment. We are embracing the opportunity for a race to the end.”

With seven seniors (each possessing specific leadership roles on the team), Santiago said they have understood the process from the beginning of their time at Nicholls and have all individually invested themselves towards the betterment of the team as a whole. He believes that the loss of these seven seniors will force the underclassmen to step up with an even greater conviction to excel as a team in future years.
Kayla Prater has gained a new perspective as a senior who has taken the reigns as a catcher and outfielder for the Colonels this season.

“Being a senior, it’s different,” Prater said. “You feel like you have all these responsibilities and you do whatever you can for the team, no matter what role you’ve been given.”
Freshman Amanda Gianelloni agrees that the different roles of the seniors all contribute to the team and will lead them to the conference tournament.

“The seniors all have their different roles as leaders, some vocal and some by their actions,” Gianelloni said. “For them to be here for all four years and to want to get to post-season play and to get there as seniors is a really cool thing to see; they’re going to continue to lead us into the post-season.”

The Colonels have made huge strides this season by sweeping Central Arkansas and Northwestern State (who are both previous SLC champions). Senior outfielder Danielle Phillips believes these wins illustrate the progress of the team over the past few years.

Phillips has been a part of the Nicholls softball team for four years and explains that her main goal as a freshman was to turn a program around.

“From having losing seasons my freshman and sophomore years to being ranked second in the Southland Conference, it shows how we have turned this program around and how we have improved,” Phillips said. “Future classes that come in will know what we are about and what we want to do with this program.”

Having started on the team when it was young, Phillips said their team chemistry has come together and is a direct result of the leaders on the team who set high expectations for the underclassmen.
With the growth of the softball program, the team has built a bigger fan base and has reaped the benefits of playing games in an electric home environment in front of a growing crowd.

“Playing at home gives us energy, just by our record at home you can see how it has affected us,” Gianelloni said. “We have a lot more support from on campus and the athletic department, and it’s a really cool thing to see from the field. We feed off that energy and we love seeing people at our games.”

Echoing Santiago who said keeping their steps in line is crucial for their upcoming games, Prater and Phillips explain they can’t afford to take a single game for granted from here on out.

“We have been taking every weekend game-by-game and I expect to do the same thing to finish this season as strong as we started it,” Prater said. “Regardless of the outcome of this season, it will be one to remember purely based on how far we have come as a program.”

Looking ahead, Santiago believes that the team’s understanding of the importance of sacrificing together and supporting each other during the best and worst times is all the momentum they need to carry them to the championship.

“This is the year to start a new tradition as far as making it to the conference tournament. That shouldn’t even be a question after this year,” Gianelloni said. “Our goals will continue to be set higher and higher. There is no doubt in my mind that we can come out on top; we just have to play our game like we have been doing.”