HOUSTON – A fast start and a flashy finish helped the Northwestern State baseball team salvage the finale of a Southland Conference series at league-leading Houston Christian.
The Demons swatted three first-inning home runs to build a big lead, added a fourth later in the game, and turned three double plays, including two in the final two innings, en route to a 10-5 win against HCU on Sunday afternoon at Husky Field.
Houston Christian won Friday’s opener 17-10 and prevailed 5-2 on Saturday, but could not complete the series sweep.
“I’m darn proud of the win because of what it means in the way we responded, the way we found complementary baseball, the way we got out to a fast start and the way, especially in the middle and later innings, that we were able to hold momentum on our side,” second-year Demons’ coach Chris Bertrand said. “The things we feel ailed us not only Friday and Saturday, but going back to Tuesday, some of the things that ailed us in our totality, we answered those challenges today. That’s the mark of a good team. That’s the mark of a gritty team.”
The Demons (21-16 overall, 13-8 in the SLC) jumped HCU starter Ben Smith for five straight hits to start the game, including back-to-back home runs from Balin Valentine and Rocco Gump.
Valentine’s three-run home run and Gump’s solo shot were the first two of three home runs in the opening inning.
The dagger that drove Smith (3-3) from the game came from catcher Mason Wray, whose first career home run capped the seven-run inning.
Wray ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Smith, depositing it over the left-field wall.
“I went in there knowing he had been throwing first-pitch fastballs quite heavily,” said Wray, who added a third-inning double as part of a two-hit day. “My dad’s been telling me to jump on that first-pitch fastball, so I said, ‘Heck, yeah.’ He put that first-pitch fastball in there, and the rest is history.”
Sunday marked the first time Wray started a game since Game 1 of a March 29 doubleheader against Nicholls.
His return helped guide Trent Hillen (5-1) and Wesley Marien through an HCU lineup that scored 22 runs in the first two games of the series.
“The person that he is, that’s what he brings to the table,” Bertrand said of Wray. “He leads this team through example, and he leads this team through energy. He leads not just through a good performance, but that toughness and that grit. Mason’s the type of person Demon baseball is built upon.”
Hillen surrendered a three-run home run to Parker Edwards in the first inning then gutted out five solid innings on a hot, humid afternoon. NSU added a run in the fourth on a solo shot by Braden Benton, his sixth of the season.
After some soft contact allowed HCU (22-12, 14-4) to cut the lead to three and load the bases with two outs in the fifth, Hillen struck out Trevor Roper to end the inning and end his day.
Hillen’s final out set up the longest outing of Marien’s career and led to his first career save.
Marien tossed four scoreless innings, again holding the momentum the Demons gained with a two-out, two-run single from Colin Rains in the sixth inning.
The Demons return to action Tuesday when they host LSU-Alexandria. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.
SOFTBALL: Little things turned into big things for Northwestern in a 5-3 loss to Lamar in Saturday’s Southland Conference series finale. It was NSU’s 11th conference loss this season by two runs or less.
Like the second game on Friday, the Demons (5-39, 2-19) were unable to produce with runners in scoring position early in the game while a pair of free passes and an error led to one big inning for Lamar (25-19, 13-8) and the ensuing sweep of the Demons. Lamar opened the series Friday with a 6-2, 4-1 sweep at the Demon Diamond on Alumni Weekend, breaking open a scoreless pitchers’ duel with four runs in the sixth inning of the nightcap.
“We did a lot of good things (Saturday), had some good at-bats, got some runners on and made some plays,” first-year NSU coach Jenny Fuller said. “But we made a few mistakes today and those have snowballed on us in other games and it did again today. We’re a young team and even though they’ve all played a bunch of games this year they’re still learning how to handle those big situations.”
Northwestern plays at Nicholls Thursday and Friday in a conference series in this week’s only action, then wraps up the home and regular-season schedule at home April 25-26 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.