NACOGDOCHES, Texas – There are no style points in baseball, simply the bottom line.
For the Northwestern State baseball team, Sunday’s 7-5 Southland Conference victory against Stephen F. Austin at Pilgrim’s Park checked several bullet points for the Demons.
“I am really proud of them today for the manner in which they found a way to win,” second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “That’s an important ball game to get because, when you sort through all of the circumstances, the fact remains that we won another series, and we won another series on the road in a tough environment to win in. We responded to what was (Saturday’s) inability to either mount a comeback or to make adjustments. The idea that we responded and took care of business and found a way to pick each other up and accomplish another goal is something to be proud of.”
The Demons (27-18, 17-10) captured their third conference road series win by doing to the Lumberjacks (12-30, 4-20) what SFA did to Northwestern in the middle game of the series – take advantage of defensive lapses. The Demons opened the weekend with a 12-2 romp, but SFA evened things with a surprising 8-1 victory Saturday, and was in position to win the series late in Sunday’s contest.
With NSU trailing 5-4 entering the eighth inning, Mason Wray and Hudson Brignac reached on back-to-back errors by SFA shortstop Matthew Reinholtz. A walk to Reese Lipoma loaded the bases before Rocco Gump chopped a go-ahead two-run single over first baseman Mark Henning’s head. Braden Benton added a sacrifice fly to cap the go-ahead, three-run inning.
Gump’s single was his second run-scoring hit of the game – both of which came against left-handed pitchers. Gump had tied the game in the fifth inning with an RBI double.
Gump’s single came after a half inning in which three Demon pitchers combined to keep the Lumberjacks from extending their lead after a leadoff double and a sacrifice bunt had put a runner on third with one out. The trio of Adam Alexis, Corbin Talley and Austin Anderson (3-0) each recorded one out in the inning with Talley striking out Dalton Mullins, who homered earlier in the game, before Anderson induced an inning-ending popout by Henning to keep it a one-run game.
Anderson closed out the win with two more scoreless innings with some help from his defense, which turned a pair of double plays in the final four innings.
A day after committing three errors that led to six unearned runs in an 8-1 loss, the Demons played clean defense in Sunday’s finale. That combined with four shutout innings of relief from Alexis, Talley and Anderson allowed Northwestern to overcome 11 runners left on base and give the Demons their best 27-game mark in Southland play since 2016.
The Demons return to action Tuesday when they go to ULM in their final mid-week game of the season. NSU steps out of conference play next weekend, playing a series at Pepperdine before finishing the home slate and regular season with SLC foe McNeese May 8-10.
TRACK — Megan Shaw posted the 11th-fastest 400 meter time in the country Saturday at LSU’s Alumni Gold meet as the NSU senior smashed her school record, clocking a 51.19, crushing her previous mark of 51.87 set two weeks earlier.
The Lady Demons’ 4×400 relay team of Shaw, Conteh, Samari Finney and Tranasia Jones ran a 3:31.82, one of the best marks in school history and the best time this season.
The men’s 4×400 relay team ran into the school record books, as Galen Loyd, Vincente Graiani, William Achee and Desmond Duncan clocked 3:06.16, breaking a Demon record that had stood since 2003.
While it was not a school record, the men’s 4×100 relay did run a season best, as Loyd, Tavis Wilson, Mikkel Johansson and Elijah Rowe posted a 39.45, the best mark in the Southland this season.
SOFTBALL — The Demons finished their first season under coach Jenny Fuller, with the nation’s youngest roster, highlighting the home series finale with a 9-1 run-rule victory in Friday’s second game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The Islanders (12-36, 6-21) scored four unearned runs in the top of the sixth in Friday’s first game on the way to a 9-4 win. In the nightcap, the Demons (7-43, 4-23) flipped the script by scoring six straight unearned runs over the final two innings.
It was the Demons’ first home conference win and first run-rule win of the season.
Northwestern broke through in the third with three straight base hits and moved up 2-1. The Demons put their foot down in the fourth to help secure the game.
Freshman catcher Ary Garcia Santana launched the second pitch of her leadoff at-bat in the fourth over the left center wall for her first career home run. She is the seventh Demon this season to hit her first career home run.
Her long ball sparked the first of back-to-back crooked number innings. Two throwing errors led to the second run of the inning, allowing Cash Herber to score, and one of the few times senior Bailie Ragsdale was retired (she was 4 for 8 Friday) was a productive out as it drove in a run to make it a 5-1 Demon lead.
Two more Islander errors in the fifth after the first two batters of the inning reached base led to the Demons run-rule win. A throwing error at second scored the first run and a second one at short allowed two runs to score, making it an 8-1 game and putting the winning run at third base. It scored on another error to end the game.
In the final game Saturday, Northwestern broke up a no-hitter trailing 6-0 in the sixth inning and pushed across a run before a rally stalled.
“I’m proud of our team,” Fuller said. “They didn’t ask to be the youngest team in the country, and they fought the whole way through and learned a lot. A lot of things that we can take into next season. They just need to continue to work hard and make sure that we learn from these losses. I think next year we can take a big leap in the right direction.”