Northwestern State’s baseball team salvaged the final game of the first of 10 Southland Conference three-game series with a pinch-hit home run Sunday, while the Lady Demons softball team completed a 4-1 weekend in its own City of Lights Classic and the Lady Demons tennis team began defense of the SLC championship with 4-3 win on the road Saturday.
BASEBALL: With one swing Sunday, Colton Harrison turned around both his and his team’s fortunes.
Harrison’s pinch-hit, tiebreaking two-run home run in the eighth inning Sunday afternoon lifted the Demons to a 5-4 victory against Southeastern Louisiana at Brown-Stroud Field. It followed two wins by the Lions, 7-5 on Friday night and 5-1 Saturday, with SLU posting quick 4-0 leads in both games.
Sunday, SLU took an early 1-0 edge but didn’t broaden it. Tied 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, Northwestern coach Chris Bertrand used two pinch-hitters to create a winning spark.
“We knew (SLU reliever Logan Freche) threw cutters and sliders,” Harrison said. “I saw Bryce (Johnson) hit the ball hard, and as soon as he got on base, I was just looking for a pitch I could drive and get the job done. I’ve been struggling, but having a coach who believes in me every day when I show up to practice and doing the work gives me faith in the process.”
Harrison’s first home run since Feb. 15, which followed a pinch-hit single by Johnson, snapped a 3-all tie and put the Demons (6-6, 1-2) in position to snap a four-game losing streak.
It also snapped the longest home run drought of the season for Northwestern, which had not connected on a homer since Thomas Marsala III’s game-tying shot at Central Arkansas in Game 2 of a Feb. 21 doubleheader.
Harrison’s blast made a winner of sophomore left-hander Jacob LeBlanc (2-1), who along with Wesley Marien and Lucas Harrington continued the strong work of the Demon bullpen across the series. They followed 5 1-3 stellar innings from starter Trent Hillen, who allowed two hits and one earned run while striking out seven to put the Demons in position to break back into the win column.
With a little help from a web gem from second baseman Hudson Brignac, LeBlanc kept the Demons’ seventh-inning deficit at 3-2, which allowed Brignac to score on Thomas Marsala III’s RBI single to re-tie the game in the bottom of the seventh.
After Southeastern (4-7, 2-1) put the tying run on base with back-to-back singles to start the ninth, LeBlanc and Harrington combined to record the final three outs with Harrington striking out Brooks Wright to strand the tying run at third base.
The quartet of Demon pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts, marking Northwestern’s second double-figure strikeout game of the weekend and eighth of the season.
The Demons return to action Tuesday night when they host Grambling to cap a four-game homestand. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.
SOFTBALL: For the third straight game in the City of Lights Classic, Northwestern struck first. This time, it struck deep.
A three-run homer from Makynlie Jones in the opening frame set the tone and a solo shot in the third from JT Smith helped carry the Demons (9-13) to a 7-2 win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (2-11) in the tournament finale Sunday.
The power surge was plenty of support for the pitching combination of Brooklynn Stohler and Mattison Buster who threw seven strong innings allowing just two runs on two hits with nine combined strikeouts.
“Each time we win it gives us more confidence that we can win,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “After last year, it was a lot of just hoping that we could win. This year it feels like we know that we can win. To have somebody like Buster come in and shut things down like she did today, we didn’t have that luxury last year. We’re finding all the right pieces that fit together and learning as we go.”
Friday, Buster notched a no-hitter in a five-inning 14-0 romp over UAPB, striking out five. Northwestern beat UAPB 13-0 Saturday and split with Missouri State, losing 6-1 Friday but rebounding for a noteworthy 5-3 victory Saturday.
NSU’s keen eye for the strike zone this weekend, drawing 28 walks across five games, helped fuel the win over Missouri State – although the Demons were no-hit. But five walks, a hit batter and an error in the first inning allowed Northwestern to take a 5-0 lead without a hit, enough to weather a rally by the Bears, who had beaten 25th-ranked Ole Miss last weekend.
TENNIS: The Lady Demons pulled out a 4-3 win Saturday at UT-Rio Grande Valley to open defense of their 2025 Southland Conference co-championship when Maria Farina recovered from a 7-5 loss in the first set to sweep the next two sets, 6-4, 6-0, to provide the decisive point.
Northwestern plays today at 10 a.m. at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, another of last year’s co-champions along with Stephen F. Austin.
