Nicholls students have a chance to win $900 at the next home baseball game April 18 because of the $100 give-away head coach Chip Durham started this season to raise attendance levels. The actual give-away is $100 per home game, but if no one is there to claim the prize, the amount rolls over to the next home game. At last Wednesday’s game, the giveaway amount was $800, but nobody made the trip to the press box to pick up the prize, so the amount will jump to $900 at the next home game, according to Elizabeth Ballard.

“Coach Durham came up with the idea, and he set aside $2,700 at the beginning of the season,” Ballard said.

She said they put every student’s name in a box, and then a name is called during the seventh inning. Students then have one minute to get to the press box to collect their prize.

“Students only get one minute because they want to prevent people who are not in attendance from receiving the give-away,” according to Ballard.

Chris Noble has been the only winner of the give-away. He won a $1,000 prize. Ballard said students are not given the prize in cash, but the amount is put into the student’s campus account.

Ballard said there is no way to see if the give-away has worked in getting students to the baseball field because this is the first year.

“Whatever is left in the fund will be given out. We will keep calling names out of the box until someone claims the prize,” Ballard said.

Coach Durham was unavailable for comment because he was preparing for this weekend’s series at Central Arkansas.