The Nicholls State baseball team was picked to finish 11th in the Southland Conference coaches’ poll and tied ninth by the Sports Information Directors.

Head coach Seth Thibodeaux said that the polls do not bother him. Instead, it motivates him, and he knows that it motivates his players.

“We don’t talk about ‘em,” Thibodeaux said. “I think it’s a huge slap in the face, and it’s very disrespectful for what we’ve done here, but to earn someone’s respect, you have to continue to make things happen. And whatever, we’ll just keep beating the one seed in the tournament and keep making noise.”

While Nicholls was picked to finish near the bottom of the pack in the Southland Conference by the coaches’ poll, they were picked to finish sixth in the conference by Baseball America.

Thibodeaux said that the preseason polls are going to make them hungrier and play with a chip on their shoulder.

Entering the 2012 baseball season, the Colonels landed two players on Southland Conference Preseason First Team All-Conference Team with senior left-fielder Jeremy Hill and senior pitcher Seth Webster.

Webster not only received first team honors, but he was named by College Sports Madness the Southland Conference Preseason Pitcher of the Year.

Thibodeaux said Webster is not a vocal leader, but he is very professional and his work ethic is second to none. He went on to say that Webster is a perfectionist in a positive way and his work ethic rubs off on everyone.

When it comes to Hill, Thibodeaux said he challenged him after last season.

Thibodeaux wanted Hill to get stronger in the weight room, play summer ball and lose 15 pounds, and Thibodeaux said he did all three of those things and is bouncing around the field with excitement during practice.

“It’s fun to see those guys when they really buy into what you ask them to do, and you see success in everything they do after that. It’s really exciting.”

Expecting to start in the infield for the Colonels will be senior first baseman Blake Bergeron, sophomore second baseman Phillip Lyons, senior third baseman Beau Faulk, a position battle between sophomore Ray Eureste and junior Leo Vargas at shortstop, and another position battle behind the plate between junior catcher Cody Dufrene and junior Evan Weibel.

Eureste is expected to start the first two weeks because Vargas will be out with a strained elbow.

The Colonels have another position battle at centerfield between juniors Mike Barba and Matt Richard, with Hill and junior Michael LeGrange rounding out the outfield.

“We have a little more talent than we’ve had in the last couple of years, but we’re really tough,” Thibodeaux said.

Thibodeaux said that his goals for his team were to make the Southland Conference, but he wants them to do the little things and be consistent. He said you cannot be a good team two days out of the week and expect to have a great season.

That theory dawned on Thibodeaux when he played college ball at LSU-Eunice and William Cary College in Hattiesburg, Miss.

“It clicked for me when my coach told me that if you’re only good twice a week, then you’re a .500 player. I took that to heart back then, and I never wanted my team to be that way,” Thibodeaux said.

But the more Thibodeaux talked about his team, the more excited he became about the season.

“I’m really looking forward to it because I know what we’ve been through, and I know how they’ve responded,” he said. “We made it really, really hard for them and it didn’t bother them.”

He said he made it really tough on the team in the offseason because he knows during the heat at Texas State in May for the conference tournament, it is going to be tough to win because the calls will not go their way.

The Colonels’ journey to the Southland Conference tournament begins tomorrow when they play Southern Miss in Hattiesburg at 4 p.m.