LAFAYETTE – Twice in Tuesday night’s game, the Northwestern State baseball team nearly erased a sizeable deficit at UL Lafayette.
Despite those close calls, the Demons saw their five-game winning streak come to an end as the Ragin’ Cajuns held off Northwestern’s multiple rallies and emerged with a 9-7 victory at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field.
NSU concludes its midweek road trip in New Orleans tonight at Tulane. First pitch for the first meeting in 12 years between the Demons and the Green Wave is set for 6:30 p.m. with Demons’ coach Chris Bertrand looking for the same effort and a little better performance.
“Like we told the guys, we’re really proud of the effort, really proud of the fight and the competitiveness and the way we showcased the growth of our program against such a quality opponent in this type of environment,” Bertrand said. “We have to balance the scales in the way that we are happy about the fight and the competitiveness, but we have to have the knowledge that we have to execute baseball things more cleanly. I felt like we left too many pitches and too many plays out there on the field to expect a different result.”
The Demons (18-10) found themselves down 5-0 after the Cajuns (15-15) struck quickly in the first two innings.
The bottom of the Northwestern order started the first Demon comeback of the night, delivering three third-inning runs.
Northwestern nearly erased the deficit in the fourth when Braden Benton doubled to center and scored two batters later on a Colin Rains double.
The Cajuns padded their one-run edge when pinch hitter Carson Hepworth delivered a two-out, two-run double in the fifth.
Again, the Demons fought back behind Benton, who crushed his second home run in three games to lead off the sixth inning.
“Watching Braden continue to swing a hot bat gives us great options with our lineups as we move forward in games,” Bertrand said of the designated hitter, whose last four hits have been two doubles and two home runs.
Each team rapped out 13 hits Tuesday night, but the Demons ended up stranding three more runners than the hosts.
Three of the final four came in the eighth inning after Northwestern was threatening to erase a four-run deficit.
A run-scoring wild pitch with the bases loaded scored Hudson Brignac with two outs before back-to-back walks by Rocco Gump and Balin Valentine brought home a run and reloaded the bases for Benton.
Reliever Wil Taylor, who notched his second save of the season by collecting the final four outs, got Benton on a called third strike to leave the bases loaded.
The Demons brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth but Brignac could not add to the first three-hit game of his career, allowing the Cajuns to pick up their fifth straight win in the series.
“We had 13 punchouts on offense – even though we got 13 hits – but the punchouts came at the most critical moments,” Bertrand said. “It’s just cleaning up the execution and against an amazing baseball team in this environment, and using the knowledge that you can’t leave pitches or plays out on the field. That’s what we did tonight.”
SOFTBALL: NSU wraps up non-conference play this evening in Monroe facing ULM, one of the best teams in the Sun Belt Conference.
First pitch for the final game of the home-and-home series with the Warhawks, the first between the two teams since 2017, is set for 6 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
ULM (26-13) blasted its way to a 13-0 win in Natchitoches in five innings on Feb. 26, nearly completing the home run cycle with a solo shot, two-run homer and a three-run blast in the game among their 12 total hits.
“I think that since we played ULM the first time that we’ve gotten better as the season’s gone on,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “So, I think that we’ll go in there and compete a little bit better with them. So, I’m excited to play them again.”
The Demons (4-30) picked up their first conference win of the season this past weekend, finally breaking through a litany of close games since the first meeting with the Warhawks for an 8-7 victory Saturday at East Texas A&M.
It was the 10th game in a month’s time the Demons played that was decided by two runs or less, including all three in the series against the Lions.
