Winning in different ways is something second-year head coach Chris Bertrand wanted to see from his Northwestern State baseball team.
The Demons did just that Wednesday night by utilizing four sacrifice flies and a few timely hits to grab a 10-5 win against Alcorn at Brown-Stroud Field. After two straight comfortable midweek victories by a combined 15 runs, NSU begins Southland Conference action in Hammond this weekend at Southeastern.
“This is one of those wins that, from the top down including me, requires maturity and perspective and a balance of your thoughts and emotions,” Bertrand said. “There’s a part of us that says, ‘That’s a couple of wins in a row, and we’ve done some great things.’ We’re always going to be a program that wants to pull the positives out of it, and we want to stay upbeat going into conference play and be proud of it. The other side is the balance where we know some of our execution was not the best baseball earlier in the ballgame.”
The Demons (4-4) moved ahead to stay when Rocco Gump’s two-run single in the fourth inning snapped a 4-all tie and gave him 10 RBIs in his past four games. Gump punched a 3-0 pitch to right field to score Reese Lipoma and Samuel Stephenson, who combined to reach base eight times and scored six combined runs.
KNOWLES HONORED: Following a stellar performance at the LSU Twilight indoor track and field meet last Friday, NSU’s Bernesha Knowles. a senior from The Bahamas, took home the Southland Conference Female Field Athlete of the Week honor announced Wednesday. She tossed a personal-best 56-7.25 in the weight throw to take home the top spot in the competition at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse in Baton Rouge.
That mark put her in fourth place in the SLC in the event rankings heading into the conference indoor championships Sunday and Monday in Birmingham. The Lady Demons are bidding to win their third consecutive SLC indoor crown.
SOFTBALL FALLS: Northwestern was unable to keep pace with the hot bats of visiting ULM on Wednesday night in a 13-0 loss in five innings.
The Warhawks (9-7) needed just two batters to take the lead, and never looked back launching three home runs and taking advantage of nine walks issued by the Demons (1-13). The young NSU squad, with a dozen freshmen, plays in the Bulldog Invitational at Mississippi State this weekend, beginning Friday.
