The 2011 baseball season is coming to a close, and the seniors will soon move on with their lives.        

Nicholls’ head coach Seth Thibodeaux said that the seniors truly love their school and want Nicholls to be successful. Thibodeaux said he’ll miss joking with his seniors, and it’s hard on him as a coach to see these guys leave once the season is over.

“It’s hard to explain, but I’ll miss their personalities, their work ethic and their desire to make Nicholls better,” Thibodeaux said. “Those guys have gone through a lot, and they helped Nicholls get back to where we are right now.”

The seniors joke with each other on a regular basis and Thibodeaux joins in on the fun. Thibodeaux said that senior outfielder Kasey Culverson “truly pulled a Manny Ramirez” when he tripped and fell right in front of the Lamar baseball team as he was going to throw the ball home and acted like nothing happened. Thibodeaux said that his senior infielder Chase Jaramillo has hit on every girl on Nicholls campus and has been unsuccessful in every attempt.

“I can rag on these guys all day long, but they’ve been very loyal,” Thibodeaux said. “When I bring recruits on campus, they’re awesome and help us a great deal. That’s what it’s all about, continuing the tradition. I’m proud of what they’ve done in the classroom. Every one of my seniors is going to have a degree.”

Jaramillo said that he would miss the guys the most. He said that he couldn’t pick out only one funny story to share about the times he’s had with his teammates.

“We have so many,” Jaramillo said. “We always have funny stories every practice.”

Culverson agreed with Jaramillo and said that the team camaraderie is really nice. Culverson said that his career highlight at Nicholls was when he hit a “walk-off triple against Southern last year.”

Two of the eight seniors had to battle back from injuries just to be able to play this season. Thibodeaux said that red-shirt senior outfielder Scott Moseley and red-shirt senior catcher Jason Dennis ended up being two key pieces this year when he wasn’t sure that they would even be able to play. Moseley sat out last year after suffering a preseason hip injury, and Dennis had to sit out after breaking his hand in preseason.

Dennis said that he will miss being spending time with the guys the most.

 “I just like coming out here every day and being around these guys and our coaches,” Dennis said.

When it comes to sharing funny stories, Moseley said there’s “too many to name” and said his career highlight would have to be “either catching the ball going over the fence or this year when I robbed the guy of a home run against Stephen F. Austin.”

Moseley and Dennis aren’t the only seniors to have to overcome injuries as fellow senior pitcher Ryan Norton had to overcome adversity when he came back from shoulder surgery. Like the other seniors, Norton said he’ll miss the joking that goes on in the locker room, especially the “kangaroo court.”

Norton said that the team would write down a note when someone does something wrong or funny and put it into the box. He said the team would gather around and read the notes, and depending on how severe the action depicted was, he’ll have to pay something up to 50 cents.

 “It’s a good group of guys to be around, and we always have fun together,” Norton said.

Fellow pitcher and senior teammate Brian Arceneaux jokingly said that the funniest story has been his play this year compared to last season.

 “Compared to how I’m doing this year to how I’m doing last year is pretty funny,” Arceneaux said.

Things are looking up for Arceneaux, however, as his last start was a career highlight for him.

“My last start Saturday was a career highlight for me,” Arceneaux said. “I gave up two hits and only allowed one run through 7 1/3 (innings).”

Senior outfielder Bear Comer joked that he’ll miss pulling the tarp the most but then admitted he’ll miss the “team unity.”

 “There’s a lot of team bonding,” Comer said. “We’ve had some good times together, and it’s been fun.”

Redshirt senior Zach Tisdale said that getting to the tournament for the first time in 12 years last year was the highlight of his career at Nicholls.

 “It’s a great team, and we fight hard for each other out here, and I’m really going to miss that,” Tisdale said.

Thibodeaux is proud of his seniors and said that he hopes that the squad can make this season a memorable one for them to go out on.

“It makes me very proud to see what they’ve done, and hopefully we can put an exclamation mark on their careers here at Nicholls and finish this last month with a bang,” Thibodeaux said.