Baseball hosts charity game Friday for foster children

The Nicholls State University baseball team will be sporting green jerseys on St. Patrick’s Day tomorow in the first game of a three game series against Houston Baptist University at Ray E. Didier Field in order to show their support of Louis Children Crisis Center, a local orphanage for foster children in Houma.

The jerseys will be auctioned off after the game and the proceeds will directly benefit the children at the orphanage.

The Nicholls baseball team has participated in similar charity games in the past. They have worn pink jerseys in support of breast cancer awareness and green to raise funds for a local gentleman with cancer in need of a bone marrow transplant.

According to Head Coach Seth Thibodeaux, the Louis Children Crisis Center was the perfect organization for the team to support this season.

“We were trying to find a potential cancer patient or someone who really needed our help. This just kind of popped in our lap and I thought it would be really cool,” Thibodeaux said. “They don’t get to go anywhere and they don’t get to do much because they just don’t have the money. All the kids are coming out to the game.”

Carolyn McNabb, the center’s current executive director, said in a previous interview with Houma Today that the Louis Children Center has provided a home and cared for abused and neglected children for almost four decades.

According to McNabb, the organization’s greatest need is funding for the services that the state does not provide.

Children stay with this organization anywhere from six months to two years, or until they reach 14-years-old.

In 2016, there were 4,420 foster children statewide and 846 foster children in the seven-parish region that the Louis Children Center works with.

Thibodeaux said there are only about 12 orphans left at the Crisis Center in Houma who range in age from eight to 13 years old.

Tomorrow, the kids will  have the opportunity to step foot on the field for the first pitch. They will also get to enjoy a fish fry with the Nicholls baseball team after the game.

Since these children have most likely never been to a college sporting event in their lives, Thibodeaux said it would be important for all Colonel Baseball fans to pack the stands this Friday.

“It’s a really cool deal and I’m really excited to help those kids out. I’d love for the school to get involved and to pack the house for them,” Thibodeaux said.  “The money is going to an unbelievable cause and I’m really fired up about it. Hopefully we can do really well for them.”

Senior catcher Alex Tucker said it will be strange seeing his teammates wearing green instead of red, but he thinks it will be worth it.

“It doesn’t really matter what organization Coach Thibodeaux decides we will support as long as it’s a good cause,” Tucker said. “It definitely is this time and it always has been in the past.”

Senior Justin Holt said, when the team is able to help those in need it is always a humbling experience.

“It’s an honor to be able to help out the community in any way we can, and for us to be able to lend a helping hand to those who are in need of certain things,” Holt said. “There are kids there who really need our help and the fact that we are able to help them is very humbling and a really good feeling.”