SAN ANTONIO – Fittingly, it took extra innings for the Northwestern State baseball team to accomplish something eight years in the making.
Bryce Johnson’s three-run home run snapped a 12th-inning tie and the Demons held on for a 7-6 victory against Incarnate Word on Saturday to clinch a three-game Southland Conference series at Sullivan Field.
Friday evening, senior center fielder Joe Siervo added another chapter to his growing key-moment resume, delivering a tie-breaking, two-run home run as the Demons held on for a 9-8 victory in the nightcap of a doubleheader at UIW. The Cardinals grabbed a 13-9 win in the first game Friday, jumping to an early six-run lead.
The Game 3 extra-inning triumph marked the first time the Demons (9-7, 3-3) captured a series in San Antonio since the 2018 season.
“It’s a Demon type of win on a Demon type of day, and we did it in a Demon type of way,” third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “I continue to be the proudest leader of men because of the things we continue to exhibit. We’re going to continue to fight. We’re going to continue to put our fists up, and we’re going to continue to stay in it. Our guys exhibit grit and a never-say-die attitude. As long as it takes, whatever it takes, we’re always going to figure out a way. That’s what we enjoy the most – our guys want to be in that fire, because they are proud to be people who figure out a way to get it done.”
Johnson jumped the first pitch from UIW reliever Fawster Voytko (1-2) and drilled it out to left field, slicing it through a crosswind for his first home run of the season.
Johnson’s blast stood in direct opposition to how the Demons pulled even in the eighth inning.
Johnson ripped a leadoff double to left field by advancing to third on a productive ground out to first base by Michael McAloose and scored on Sam Ardoin’s chopper against a drawn-in infield.
Northwestern starter Trent Hillen settled in after UIW (8-8, 2-4) scratched out a pair of two-run innings in the first and second to build a 4-2 lead. Hillen recovered to blank the Cardinals across the next four innings before turning the ball over to Wesley Marien, who spun four shutout innings of two-hit relief with four strikeouts.
“We talk a lot about learning, and we talk about pulling from those experiences,” Bertrand said. “Wes has been in that situation before. His ability to find a calm mentally and put those lessons learned and that value was pulled and call upon those experiences to deliver for the team is exactly what we talk about – who we want to be and what we want to be.”
The Demons held on for the win as Caden Fiveash (2-0) got Cole Tabor to fly out to center field after Tony DeJesus’ two-run home run cut into the Northwestern lead.
Fiveash worked two innings, working around a leadoff walk to strand the winning run at second base in the 11th inning to set up Johnson’s blast, which gave the Demons their sixth final at-bat win of the season.
Northwestern hosts Alcorn State Tuesday in a 6 p.m. game at Brown-Stroud Field.
SOFTBALL: Friday in Houston, Northwestern State jumped out to another early lead but could not find the timely hit it needed as Houston Christian walked off with a 3-2 win in the Southland Conference opening series finale, after NSU swept a Thursday doubleheader, 7-1 and 11-6.
“We had opportunities throughout the game, we just couldn’t come up with that big hit like we were able to do a few times yesterday,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “I was really proud of the way that (Mattison) Buster competed for us all day, especially after pitching a lot on Thursday. It’s tough to lose one like that, but we definitely saw more progress as a team this weekend and we won the series.”
The Demons had a chance to give Buster her third win of the weekend in the seventh when the first two batters reached base on a hit-by-pitch and a pinch-hit single from Aly Delafield. However, a fly ball to center, strikeout and ground ball to short from the next three batters left the go-ahead run at second.
HCU led off the bottom of the inning with a double by Ella Herrewig with a sacrifice bunt moving her to third with one out. After two intentional walks to load the bases and create a force play at home, Maddy Bailey lined a ball into left to bring in the game-winning run for the Huskies.
The Demons continue play on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in a midweek contest at Grambling and are home next weekend for an SLC series.
