BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic – The Nicholls State University baseball team headed to the Dominican Republic on Friday, where the Red and Grey will spend time doing community service and also play two games against Dominican national teams.
 
Senior right-handed pitcher Robbie Petty provides a recap of the team's first full day.
 
12/12/15:
 
After a long day of traveling, we woke up at 7:30 a.m. to have our team breakfast and orientation at the resort. Afterword we changed and walked across the street to put on a camp for kids from the local area. The camp lasted from about 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. It was cool to see all the kids and how passionate they were about the game. No matter how athletic a kid was, they all knew how to catch and throw a baseball. We took them through nine different stations that lasted 10 minutes each, teaching them unique skills at each position.


 
After the camp was over, and after giving away shirts, hats, gloves and other baseball items to the kids, we walked back over to the resort to get on a bus and drive to a different field for batting practice. When we arrived at the field, we noticed eight or more young men waiting for us by their house, which was a small hut behind the first base foul line and fence. The shack was their sleeping quarters and the field was their workplace. Baseball means so much over here because for some, that's all they have. For an hour and a half we took batting practice on the field and interacted with them. We all had all great time.


 
After batting practice we headed back to the resort to eat lunch and change for our game. The game started all 2:15 p.m. at the field where we hosted the camp. Although it wasn't the best playing surface, the team enjoyed competing against the local Police Academy in front of the Dominican people. We trailed midway through the game, but Alex Shermer hit a Grand Slam to put us in the lead. The play set the tone for the business innings and after a long nine-inning game, the Colonels came out on top. When the game ended, we shook hands with the Police Academy and took pictures with them. We also took pictures with the local kids who stayed for the entire three-hour game, and then it was time to head back to the resort across the street for the remainder of the day.


 
Note of the day: Spanish class in high school did not prepare us for this type of interaction!

Nicholls baseball will spend time painting houses in a sugar cane village and hosting additional baseball clinics before heading back to Thibodaux on Tuesday evening. The Colonels busiest day will be Monday. Nicholls will play against the professional baseball team, Tigres Del Licey, at Estadio Quisqueya in the morning, before heading to a local orphanage. The Colonels will wrap up their busy day with a Colonial Zone tour, exploring the area where Christopher Columbus landed in December of 1492.
 
Nicholls opens the 2016 season with a four-game series at home against Mississippi Valley on the weekend of Feb. 19. For season tickets, call (985) 448-4790 or log on to geauxcolonels.com.