Colonel Baseball Set for NCAA Regional Opener against UC Irvine - Nicholls State University Athletics (2024)

Brad Weimer Photography

Baseball 5/30/2024 5:45:00 PM

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Making a second straight appearance in an NCAA Regional, the Nicholls State University baseball team will take on UC Irvine on Friday, May 31 inside Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. cental/1 p.m. pacific.

FOLLOW ALONG
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STARTING PITCHERS
Nicholls --Jacob Mayers-- RHP - Fr. - 5-1 WL - 4.28 ERA
UC Irvine -- Nick Pinto -- LHP - Gr. - 9-2 WL - 3.44 ERA

THE MATCHUP
-The Colonels (38-20) and Anteaters (43-12) will be squaring off the first time in school history.

COLONEL REGIONAL HISTORY
- The Colonels are making their fifth regionalappearance all-time as a Division I member and second consecutive appearance.
- Nicholls reached the NCAA Regionals in 1989 as an independent, then represented the Southland in '92 in its first season in the conference as an at-large before winning the SLC Tournament in 1998. Last year the Colonels won the SLC Tournament to secure a bid.
- All four previous times the Colonels were sent to an SEChost, playing at Mississippi State in '89 and '92 beforeheading to LSU in '98 and Alabama in 2023.
- Nicholls is 0-8 all-time in the regionals.
- Although winless, two of the losses were in extra innings. Nicholls fell to Mississippi State in 11 inningsin a 1-0 game in '92 and dropped a 6-5 decision to Harvard in '98. The Colonels also led three different times at Alabama in 2023 and only trailed once as the Tide had a walk-off single in the ninth for a 4-3 victory.

1989 - South Regional - Starkville, Miss.
North Carolina 8, Nicholls 4
Mississippi State 11, Nicholls 2
1992 - Mideast Regional - Starkville, Miss.
Mississippi State 1, Nicholls 0 (11 inn.)
Yale 13, Nicholls 4
1998 - South II Regional - Baton Rouge, La.
LSU 18, Nicholls 4
Harvard 6, Nicholls 5 (10 inn.)
2023 - South Regional - Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Alabama 4, Nicholls 3
Boston College 14, Nicholls 6

NO SOPhom*oRE SLUMP
Sophom*ore pitcher Jacob Mayers had another dominant season on the hill for the Red & Gray. Followed up a stellar freshman campaign with a league-leading 105 strikeouts and a .160 opponent batting average. Mayers ranked second in the NCAA in hits per nine (4.80) and 15th in Ks per nine (13.36). He went 5-1 with a 4.28 ERA in 69.1 innings, fanned a season-high 12 batters against New Orleans in 6.1 innings, and also had 10 Ks against Southeastern and Lamar. Mayers struck out an SLC-best 60 batters with a .150 average in league play.

THEY CALL IT THE BOOT
- Nicholls State Universityis one of six schools from Louisiana to make the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The Colonels are joined by Grambling State, LSU, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, and Tulane. The six teams matched the most for the state since 2000. Louisiana also has the second most teams in the 2024 Tournament, trailing North Carolina's seven. No other state has more than four teams in the tournament.

COLONELS VS. THE FIELD
Nicholls played seven teams that made the 2024 tournament field, including the five other Louisiana teams, and totaled a 4-10 combined record. The Colonels swept a home series against Grambling and split a two-game set versus Southern Miss. Nicholls outlasted the Golden Eagles, 6-5, in 10 innings in Biloxi, Mississippi, thanks to a RBI hits by Parker Coddou and Basiel Williams in the 10th. But in the matchup in Hattiesburg, USM rallied from a 6-5 deficit in the ninth for a walk-off 9-6 win.
- Although those were the only victories, the team had solid showings in defeat. Despite outhitting Tulane in the meeting in New Orleans, the Green Wave picked up a 3-2 victory. The game was knotted at 1-1 in the sixth before Tulane scored on sac flies in two straight innings. In the game in Thibodaux, the teams combinedfor 26 runs and 32 hits in a 14-12 Green Wave win. Edgar Alvarez had a season-high four hits, including a three-run homer in his second at-bat.
-Against Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs scored two in the seventh and ninth to earn a 6-4 win in Thibodaux before holding offthe Colonels in Ruston with a 10-7 win.

LIKE MIKE
Mike Silva led the Colonels to one of the best regular seasons in program history. With the task of following up a Southland Conference Regular season and tournament Championship, the team won 34 games in back-to-back seasons, winning 30-plus in the regular season for the first time since 2014-15. With a 16-8 mark in the conference, registered the highest winning percentage since 2014.
-In the non-conference, the Colonels got off to one of the best starts in school history at 17-3. Nicholls swept the series against Eastern Illinois and Sacred Heart and beat Southern Miss in a neutral site game en route to the hot start.
-While Nicholls struggled at home in league play in the first two series, losing five of six games, the team finished with an impressive 11-1 record on the road in the Southland. The Colonels swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, HCU, and Southeastern, and took two-of-three at UIW.
-The Colonels were also the only team to win a series against regular-season champion Lamar, taking two-of-three. The Cardinals had a historic season, winning 44 games which included a sweep at No. 9 seed Oklahoma and edged the Colonels by one game in the standings.
-With 38 victories, Nicholls has won the most games in a single season in program history since the school record 44 wins in 1989.
- In just his third year, Mike Silva also enters the regional with 98 career victories. He led the squadto a winning season in each of his campaigns, along with two tournament titles and a regular season championship.