The Nicholls State University Colonels baseball team ended a five-game stretch and will focus their attention on the Abeline Christian University Wildcats this weekend.

After a 3-1 series win over the University of Utah, Head Baseball Coach Seth Thibodeaux noticed resilience and a great team effort on offense as well as defense.

“I noticed a lot of resilience and toughness from our club. They have a lot of fight and faced a pretty good pitching staff from Utah. Our hitters did a really good job making adjustments. We would have loved to win four games, but we faced a really good arm in the double header Saturday,” Thibodeaux said.
“They got the best of us, but our guys responded really well Sunday. Our pitching staff did a phenomenal job all weekend long. We stayed with our plan and I think three out of four games is a really good team effort. We are getting better defensively, but there could be more cleaning up to do.”

Despite the Wildcats’ winless record, Thibodeaux said he is not going to let his team overlook their opponent, especially because they are the home team, and weather conditions will be a little different than in Thibodaux.

“We are going on a long road trip, so that helps out the home team. If our guys stay focused and don’t let the trip bother them, we will be just fine. It will be a little chilly in Abeline, Texas, but we will not let weather elements beat us. It is hard to find out a lot about a team like Abeline Christian when they had so many game cancellations because of weather,” Thibodeaux said. “Their team is not defined yet and have only played seven games. This team is hungry and excited to host a conference game. I know their coach very well and I know they have really good players. They will have a home field advantage and will be excited to host us.”

Senior left hand pitcher Stuart Holmes is currently leading the nation in saves with 5 in 11 games, and he believes they need to continue to improve as a pitching corps.

“We have had success on offense and I think key hits in big time situations will continue to come. We know our guys can hit and they have done well all fall and spring. I know we will get those big hits when we need to and we’ll do everything we can to win,” Holmes said.

Junior right hand pitcher Marc Frazier has a total of 5 runs on the season, including 3 from the Utah series and a 0.478 batting average. He believes he still has room for improvement on both sides of the ball.

“I can get better on both aspects of pitching and hitting. For pitching, I need to start locating more fastballs. For hitting, I need to stop missing the pitch that I get or that I look for,” Frazier said.

Thibodeaux said if his club goes into this weekend and takes care of business, they will do well.

“We just have to make sure we stay within ourselves and take care of business. They know how and are hungry to win. We are trying to get where we can be dominant and not give our opponents any chances,” Thibodeaux said. “Our team understands that in order for us to win championships, we have to win road games.”