The Nicholls baseball season came to a close following a 3-2 loss to the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders at the Southland Conference Tournament in Conway, AR on May 21.

The Colonels finished the season second in the Southland Conference with a record of 21-9. Overall, Nicholls was 32-26 with a 21-10 record in Thibodaux. This season was the baseball team’s first winning season since 2002, the first time it finished with a winning conference record since 2000 and the team’s first 30-win season since 1993. The Colonels are the first team in Southland Conference history to win more than 20 conference games the season after posting a single-digit win total in conference play. Nicholls finished last season ninth in the conference with 9-18 record in league play.

Head Coach Seth Thibodeaux was chosen as the Southland Conference’s coach of the year for the Colonels record-breaking season.

Strong pitching was a key part of Nicholls’s winning season with senior Taylor Byrd leading the way. Byrd finished the season 8-3 with a 1.92 earned run average and 80 strikeouts. Byrd’s ERA and 80 strikeouts ranked second in the conference. His eight wins were third-best in the Southland. Byrd was named the conference’s pitcher of the year. Thibodeaux also pointed to leadership, and hard work in the weight room for the team’s success.

“I feel like leadership off the field, making the right decisions and coming prepared every day, the little things helped. Obviously defense was huge, but our team made a commitment in the weight room this year that really separated us, carried us through and allowed us to play at our highest potential. I think Greg Carrasquillo, our new strength and conditioning coach, had a huge hand in our success for sure,” Thibodeaux said.

However, the Colonels were without their top pitcher for the Southland Conference Tournament as Byrd was ruled academically ineligible. Senior Ryan Deemes started for Nicholls in their first tournament game against McNeese State University, a 4-2 loss. The Colonels were eliminated the following day by the Islanders.

In addition to Thibodeaux and Byrd’s individual conference awards, four Colonels were selected in the Southland’s all-conference teams. Byrd was selected all-conference first team, senior outfielder Keith Cormier was selected all-conference second team, sophomore pitcher Grant Borne was selected all-conference third team and senior Leo Vargas was honorable mention.

Despite the early exit, Thibodeaux was pleased with the Colonels’ season.

“It’s hard to put a letter grade on it. We accomplished a lot of our goals and we didn’t quite meet a couple of them. As far as breaking through the barriers, I think we did a good job. Competing for a conference championship on the last day of the regular season is certainly an A every season,” Thibodaux said. “We’re going to have to take the next step next year, but to look back on the things that we did accomplish, we did some good things this year that are awesome and great for the future of our program.”

Thibodeaux said the Colonels will look to push on from a ground-breaking season and continue to compete for the conference crown next season despite losing some of their better players.

“We’re not just going to pick up where we left off. We certainly have to replace some key losses, but we just continue on with our journey and with the story that we’re writing. Making sure that we understand the importance of the weight room, the importance of the classroom and the importance of having a championship attitude everyday,” Thibodeaux said. “We have some goals that we want to accomplish. We want to be playing at this time of year next season and we feel like we can do that. We just have to make sure that the guys that we are bringing in to replace guys that are leaving understand their roles and understand what it is like to be a Colonel.”