Southland champion Colonels heading to Oregon as No. 3 seed in Corvallis Regional

The journey was known, but the destination provided a bit of suspense.

After winning the Southland Conference Tournament, the Nicholls baseball knew it was on the way to the NCAA Regionals. The destination remained the great unknown.

The intrigue built as the Colonels and their supporters gathered at the Danos Theater on the Nicholls campus to watch the NCAA Regional selection show broadcast on ESPN+.    

Nine of the 16 regional pairings had been announced before ‘Nicholls’ appeared on the screen, showing the Colonels were headed for the Corvallis Regional hosted by Oregon State.

“That waiting is kind of like my mom telling me don’t open my Christmas gifts until after I eat. It was just a surreal moment, something that we all had been waiting for. We were dreaming for it. We have a chance to go win this thing,” Nicholls right fielder Basiel Williams.

Mike Silva, the Nicholls coach, echoed Williams’ sentiments.

“The suspense builds, and watching the kids, that’s what I enjoy. I enjoy watching the players let them have this moment,” said Silva. “It’s like being a kid on Christmas. Christmas morning when you wake up on a day like today and you’re still playing, you’re waiting with anticipation. It’s like opening a present, ‘where we going, where we going’ and being a three seed, it’s awesome. It says a lot about where our program is right now.”

Nicholls (38-20) garnered the No. 3 seed in the regional. Oregon State is the No. 1 seed, with UC-Irvine the No. 2 seed, and Tulane the No. 3 seed.

“I don’t think anybody thought we’d be a three seed. It’s a sense of pride. I think the players take a lot of pride in that. I know the staff does, and I think administration does, too. The fact that Nicholls is a three seed in a regional and recognition that we’re getting for our program on the national level, I’m really proud of that,” Silva said.

“We’ve just got a really good baseball team. I think that was something that we were kind of looking forward to. We started to hear some things that maybe we’re gonna be a three seed, and it happened. That’s what I was expecting for the most part was for us to be a three seed,” said Nicholls first baseman Edgar Alvarez, the Player of the Year in the Southland Conference.

The three seed, said Nicholls pitcher Nico Saltaformaggio, was sort of like a seal of approval to the caliber of team the Colonels have been this season.

“It just shows our body of work this year is really good,” said Saltaformaggio, the SLC’s Relief Pitcher of the Year. “We’re a really good baseball team. We’ve competed against really good teams. Louisiana has six teams in the tournament. That just shows we can play against anybody, and Louisiana has some of the best baseball there is out there. It just shows our body of work and what we’ve done the entire year.”

Action in the Corvallis Regional begins on Friday. Nicholls is scheduled to face UC-Irvine at 3 p.m. Central time on ESPN+. Oregon State and Tulane are slated to square off at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

Of all the sites, the Corvallis Regional is about the furthest from Thibodaux, but that matters little to the Colonels.

“I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t expect us to go there, but it’s happening. All you can do is be excited about it now. We get to play more baseball,” said senior shortstop Parker Coddou.

“I’m still in shock, honestly,” Saltaformaggio said. “I think it’s going to be a really fun regional with a bunch of really good teams. It’s exciting to see Tulane, a team we faced before, a familiar opponent. I feel like that should give us a lot of confidence like we can go in there and we can pretty much beat anybody.”

In two competitive games this season, Nicholls lost 3-2 to Tulane in New Orleans and 14-12 in Thibodaux.

“Not just Tulane, I think we can play with anybody,” said Coddou. “We’re a really good team, but we also know that the four teams that in this bracket are also really good teams as well.”

Facing a known foe like Tulane, or unfamiliar opponent like UC-Irvine or Oregon State, it doesn’t much matter to Silva.

“I really don’t spend a lot of time on that, and I really don’t going into the tournament either,” the Nicholls coach said. “You’re familiar with all the teams in your own conference, but this time of year, I just try to focus on us. I just think that there’s so many outside factors. I’m gonna focus on making sure our team’s prepared. Our coaching staff, we’ll have a late night tonight preparing for all the teams in the regional.”