The result of Braden Benton’s swing at a 1-0 slider in the seventh inning of Sunday’s Northwestern State baseball game against visiting Central Arkansas was a grand slam.
But it was what went into that game-changing swing that impressed second-year head coach Chris Bertrand.
“Before the at-bat, after they made the pitching change, listening to them talk about the scouting report and listening to him talk about having a plan, he was talking to Clay (Jung) and he was talking to Reese (Lipoma),” Bertrand said. “He goes up there with a plan, and he executed the plan to perfection. Yes, a big swing. Yes, a home run, and we’re very proud of that, but our guys are starting to become a very savvy baseball team.”
Benton’s first career grand slam broke open a two-run game and allowed the Demons to cruise to an 11-3 win at Brown-Stroud Field and an opening-weekend series victory.
Benton’s grand slam was the second game-turning home run of the day for Northwestern, following Samuel Stephenson’s tie-breaking two-run home run in the third inning.
The series turned on Saturday’s 16-6 run-rule Demon win, after UCA prevailed 6-2 in the Friday night season opener.
After the Demons (issued double-figure walks and hit batters Friday, the visiting Bears returned the favor Saturday – and Northwestern capitalized.
Down 5-3 after Central Arkansas erased an early deficit, the Demons regained the lead by capitalizing on a bout of wildness from UCA reliever Tate Collins in a five-run fifth inning.
The five-run fifth was the first of three innings in which the Demons scored at least four runs Saturday.
The Demons return to action Wednesday when they open a four-game road trip with a 6 p.m. matchup at ULM. Next weekend they play at Top 25-ranked Troy.
TRACK AND FIELD: The men’s 4×400 meter relay lowered its own NSU record time Saturday after Maygan Shaw broke the Lady Demons’ 200 meter mark Friday at the Tyson Invitational indoor meet hosted by the Arkansas Razorbacks.
After running a 3:10.87 last time out to break the school record in the 4×4, the group of Kason Jones, Galen Loyd, Vincente Grainani and William Achee clocked 3:09.05, nearly two seconds better than their previous mark.
For the third consecutive meet, Shaw set a school record. In the first two meets, she did so as a member of the women’s 4×400 relay team. This time, she did it individually with a 52.90 in the 400-meter dash, which broke Sanaria Butler’s record of 52.92 set a year ago.
NSU will compete at LSU next weekend, then prepare for the Southland Conference Indoor Championships beginning March 2.
SOFTBALL: New NSU coach Jenny Fuller notched her first win with the Demons and 250th career victory Saturday in a 4-3, 10-inning triumph over the Memphis Tigers, but it was the only happy ending of a two-day homefield tournament for the nation’s youngest team.
They fell 3-2, stranding the tying run at third base in the bottom of the seventh, Sunday afternoon to conclude the four-team event. NSU also had two lopsided losses to Jacksonville State.
A wild walk-off and tough as nails pitching helped the Demons top the Tigers in extra innings in NSU’s first appearance on its new artificial turf field provided by a $2 million gift from David and Jennifer Thornton and family last fall. Memphis brought a 5-0 record into the day.
“It’s awesome,” Fuller said on getting her first win at NSU in the home opener. “We’ve worked hard for that and we know that we’re going to go through ups and downs this year. So it felt good to beat Memphis, who is a big school, a well known school and they have a good coach.”
With the bases loaded and one out, the seventh wild pitch of the day, and fourth from reliever Rylee Dugar, who went toe-to-toe with NSU’s Brooklynn Stohler over the final six-plus innings, allowed Brynn Daniel to swim move her way to the plate for the game winner.
Stohler locked down the Tiger bats following a three-run fourth inning and delivered her most clutch pitching in extra innings. She allowed just one hit between the fifth and seventh innings and three total in the last six frames.
Northwestern (1-7) is scheduled to visit Louisiana Tech on Tuesday but rainy weather is forecast. The Demons play in an Arlington, Texas, tournament next weekend, opening against Yale.
