Nicholls State University’s baseball team started off their season with a four-game home series against the University of Missouri last Friday.

Nicholls ended the 2021 season second to last in the Southland Conference standings and are once again predicted to finish in one of the last two spots. Nicholls tied for the least amount of preseason votes with Houston Baptist with only 24 total points. The top vote-getters were Southeastern Louisiana University and McNeese State University with 93 and 80 points, respectively.

The Colonels landed one player on the preseason 2nd Team All-Conference list with infielder Austin Cain. Cain ended last season with a batting average of .283, a fielding percentage of .896 and 37 games with a perfect fielding percentage.

Nicholls brought in head coach Mike Silva in the offseason in hopes of turning the program around. Silva also brought on two new assistants, Cody Livingston and Ladd Rhodes. Livingston handles pitching and Rhodes handles hitting and recruiting coordinator duties.

The members of the team have described the team under Silva’s coaching staff as a full turn around. 

“From what I’ve heard there’s been a complete one-eighty and we’re all really looking forward to this year for sure,” Edgar Alvarez said.

The team would not mention personal goals. Instead, they preached the team goal of winning and learning in the process. Chemistry was one of their main goals.

“The chemistry of the team has been taken up a notch. With the JUCO guys and the amount of freshmen coming in, there wasn’t really an awkward moment,” Xane Washington said.

Nicholls started out the season with back-to-back losses against the Missouri Tigers, but pulled it together in game three with a 9-8 win. The Colonels would, however, drop game four on Monday with a score of 7-4.

The Sunday win over Missouri was coach Mike Silva’s first win as head coach of the Nicholls State baseball team. Silva hid none of his praise and excitement after the game.

“I thought our guys gained some momentum and confidence from last night and carried it into today. All weekend our guys have been competing, and they carried it to today and I was really happy for them to get the win,” Silva said.

Nicholls faced Tulane University on Wednesday night, but they lost 7-5. 

Overall, it has been a positive start to the season thus far for the Colonels, as they are proving that they can compete with any team that they face.