Northwestern State’s baseball team evened its Southland Conference record at 3-3 over the weekend with a series sweep of visiting Incarnate Word, coming back to win 5-4 in 10 innings Friday night, then rolling 12-4 Saturday and holding off the Cardinals 5-4 Sunday.
In Sunday afternoon’s series finale, NSU gradually built a 5-1 lead and withstood a three-run ninth-inning that saw UIW get the tying run to third base with two outs.
“That was like a Mike Rowe ‘Dirty Jobs’ win,” second-year Northwester coach Chris Bertrand said. “That was the dirtiest thing you can imagine. We know we didn’t play the cleanest baseball, and we didn’t play up to the standard as far as execution. However, there is always a lesson to be learned, and we learned how to sweep someone. We learned how to stay in the fight even though some things weren’t going our way.”
Northwestern (8-7, 3-3) moved on top in the fifth inning when Samuel Stephenson delivered a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.
Braden Benton knocked an RBI single in the seventh for a 3-1 edge. Northwestern tacked on two runs in the eighth on a Rocco Gump single – a hit that loomed large in the ninth as UIW (8-7, 0-3) rallied. With the tying run 90 feet away, Demon reliever Bryce Leonard and Cameron Crotte engaged in a nine-pitch battle that included six foul balls before Leonard blew an elevated fastball by Crotte to seal the win.
In Friday’s opener, NSU fell behind 4-0 against UIW’s ace, a returning All-SLC first team pitcher. But the Demons chipped away, forced extra innings and won on a bases-loaded error. In Saturday’s romp, Northwestern scored nine runs with two out, and a five-run fifth inning blew open the contest.
The Demons continue their season-long six-game homestand Tuesday night against Grambling. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.
TENNIS: The Lady Demons handled visiting UIW 5-2 on Friday afternoon to move their Southland Conference record to 3-0, but will get a strong challenge today when defending conference champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi visits the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex for an 11 a.m. match.
Recent N-Club Hall of Fame inductee Olga Bazhanova Moore is the Islanders’ associate head coach. She played on one NCAA Tournament team for Northwestern and later coached the 2015 Lady Demons to the NCAA Tournament. The Islanders have won their last 28 matches against SLC opponents dating back to 2022 and have an overall 12-1 record this spring, 2-0 in conference play. NSU was the last Southland team to beat Corpus Christi.
SOFTBALL: The Demons were swinging for wins in their last at-bats of the last two games of their SLC series against visiting Houston Christian but unlike a weekend earlier against No. 20 Mississippi State, couldn’t get the decisive plays and were swept in three games Friday and Saturday.
After HCU won the first game Friday 8-3, NSU had the tying run in scoring position in each of the last two innings of the nightcap but fell 7-5. Saturday, the Demons overcame a six-run third inning by the Huskies (9-11, 3-0) and tied the game after a pair of three-run frames before the visitors pushed across two go-ahead runs and again denied a late push by Northwestern (3-20, 0-3).
In Game 3, Peyton Peck went 4-for-4 with two RBI for the Demons, including a home run and a leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh.
The Demons play host to Baylor, coached by former NSU football player and assistant softball coach Glenn Moore, Tuesday evening at 6. Moore’s wife Janice, a Campti native, was inducted in the N-Club Hall of Fame last fall for her career as a record-breaking Southland Conference champion high jumper during their college days.
First-year Northwestern coach Jenny Fuller played for Moore at Baylor and began her coaching career on his staff.