LSU, Louisiana Tech provide midweek road challenges for Nicholls baseball team

The Nicholls baseball team faces an unusually light schedule this week while being in the midst of a 10-game road trip.

Nicholls will be on the road for games at LSU on Tuesday and at Louisiana Tech on Wednesday.

The Colonels have no games scheduled on the weekend and will not return to action after the Tech game until April 30 when Nicholls plays at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

The light schedule may be coming at just the right time after the Colonels’ very long day last Sunday at Houston Christian.

Strong winds and heavy rain blew the tarp off of HCU’s field and forced the game, which was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., to Rice University’s field. It made for an even longer day when Nicholls had to go 12 innings to take a 6-5 win to sweep the three-game series.

“It’s good to get three wins. It kind of made up for having a tough weekend at home the weekend before,” said Nicholls coach Mike Silva, referencing the Northwestern State series in which the Colonels dropped two of three games. “Hopefully, we continue moving forward because we go back on the road and after this bye week, we got back on the road for UIW. “

Defense, Silva said, was the key to the series sweep of HCU.

“Obviously, the timely hits that we got we great, but we played really good defense, especially on Sunday,” he said. “We’re starting to pitch a little better out of the bullpen. Different guys are starting to take steps forward. That’s positive, I think, even more so than just the wins or losses, it also keeps us in the hunt in the conference with three series to go, one more on the road and then two at home. Hopefully, we can continue to play well on the road.”

Nicholls is 27-14 overall, including 10-5 in Southland Conference play. The Colonels are 9-0 in the conference on the road this season.

“I guess we just need to schedule our games on the road now. For whatever reason, we still seem pretty comfortable playing on the road,” said Silva.

The non-conference road games will be a tough task for the Colonels this week.

“It’s gonna be challenging going to LSU and then Tech. I just want to see us take a step forward and continue to improve so we’re ready when we get back to conference play,” Silva said.

LSU is having an off year, sporting a 25-16 overall record, but only 5-13 in Southeastern Conference play.

The Tigers took two of three games from Missouri in their most recent series, the first time LSU won a conference series all season.

“I think they’re a good team. Sometimes, you just don’t play well and you’re playing other really good teams that are playing well,” Silva said. “I think they’re a really good team. I know that the record in the SEC play doesn’t say so, but you look at them outside of the SEC and they’re 20-3. That’s a good conference and it can go south in a hurry, and it can turn around for them in a hurry, too. I still think they are a regional-caliber team, and if they play well at the right time, is an Omaha-caliber talent.”

Tommy White leads LSU in hitting with a .327 average with 13 home runs and 37 runs batted in.

Jared Jones leads the team in home runs with 17. He is hitting .295 and is second on the team with 38 RBI.

Hayden Travinski is hitting .300 on the season and tops the team with 39 runs batted in. Travinski has 12 home runs on the season.

Louisiana Tech is 29-13 on the season, including 8-4 in Conference-USA play.

The Bulldogs are coming off a conference series in which Tech took two of three games from Dallas Baptist, which has been nationally-ranked this season.

“They’re playing really well right now, too,” Silva said of the Bulldogs. “I always say, it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them. They are playing really well. They’re a really confident group. They’re older and experienced. It’ll be a good environment there.

“You want to play teams when they’re playing good because it’s challenging, so we’ll see how it goes.”

In a game earlier in the season in Thibodaux between the Colonels and Louisiana Tech, Nicholls rallied from a 2-0 deficit with a three-run third inning, but the Bulldogs responded with two runs in each of the seventh and ninth innings to take a 6-4 win.

Trailing 6-3 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, a one-out triple by Edgar Alvarez and a run-scoring ground out by Aaron Biediger produced a run before Garrett Felix struck out to end the Colonels’ rally attempt.

Louisiana Tech is hitting .292 as a team.

Leading the way is Cole McConnell. He is hitting .405 on the season and tops the team with 12 home runs. He is tied for the team lead in runs batted in with 51.

Michael Ballard is second on the team in hitting at .323. He has one home run and 21 RBI on the season.

Dalton Davis is third on the team in batting with a .321 average. Davis has four home runs and 30 RBI.

Ethan Bates, who is tied for the team lead with 51 runs batted in, is second on team with 10, and is batting .320.

Nicholls goes into the two non-conference games coming off a series in which the Colonels played the type of complementary baseball Silva has been seeking from his team all season, the coach said.

“I want to see us play clean baseball, throw strikes, play really good defense, execute the offense when we get opportunities I thought (last) week we did that consistently,” said Silva.