Northwestern State scored a pair of blowout wins over Southwestern Athletic Conference opponents Tuesday, with the Demon baseball team rolling 13-2 at home over Alcorn State in a night game after the Lady Demon softball squad went to Grambling and blanked their hosts 10-0 in an afternoon outing.
Both NSU teams are home this weekend for Southland Conference series beginning Friday evening.
BASEBALL: The Demons overwhelmed visiting Alcorn State with a four-run second inning and a five-run fourth on the way to an 11-run win Tuesday night at Brown-Stroud Field.
“No doubt there is difficulty in playing these types of games in the way they unfold,” third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “I’m really happy with certain elements of that, unhappy with other elements of it. The challenge is, when you find yourself in that type of ballgame, to play against yourself – to play against your own discipline. There were moments in which we did that, and there were moments where we did not do that. We’ll get to work on cleaning up the baseball execution things, but nonetheless, a win, 12 hits, 13 runs, really happy with the way Logan Trotter threw the ball the last two innings and really happy for Chase Prestwich.”
Northwestern (10-7) found its offensive discipline in the second inning as the first five Demons reached base.
The key hit in the four-run inning came from third baseman Michael McAloose, who lined a two-run double to left field to erase a 1-0 deficit. The hit extended McAloose’s hitting streak to four games, a span in which he is hitting .389 (7-for-18) with a home run and four RBIs.
“We stuck to the approach our coaches wanted us to stick to,” McAloose said. “First inning, we were figuring out how the pitcher was throwing. We got used to it in the second inning. I listened to what my teammates had to say to me when they came into the dugout, and that’s how it worked.”
The four-run inning answered Alcorn’s second-inning run against Northwestern starter Jacob LeBlanc and made a winner out of Prestwich, a graduate right-hander who earned his first victory since April 26, 2024.
In his third outing since missing the entire 2025 season because of shoulder surgery, Prestwich worked 1 2-3 scoreless, hitless innings of relief to notch his first relief win since May 18, 2023, against Little Rock.
“It’s really good to be back,” Prestwich said. “I feel a lot more calm, now that I know what it feels like to not be able to throw at all. Every opportunity I get to pitch is just a blessing.”
Northwestern’s second crooked-number inning of the game – the five-run fourth inning – gave relievers Caleb Muffoletto and Trotter plenty of breathing room to close out the Demons’ second run-rule victory of the season.
The biggest – and loudest – swing of that inning came from Bryce Johnson, who delivered his second three-run home run in as many games – a majestic shot to left-center field that put the Demons up 10-1 and allowed them to cruise to their third straight win.
SOFTBALL: Northwestern wasted no time taking control Tuesday afternoon, scoring early and piling on behind a dominant pitching performance in a run-rule win at Grambling.
For the seventh straight game, the Lady Demons (12-14) scored in the first inning to take an early lead, they added four runs in both the second and third innings to secure their second run-rule win against the Tigers (7-12) this year.
The offensive support was plenty for Mattison Buster, who threw 4.0 innings of one-hit work before handing the ball to Erin Kirkland who struck out two of the three batters she faced to finish the game.
“We talked about how important it was for us to keep the momentum going heading into a big series this weekend,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “J.T. (Smith) set the tone by getting on base and whenever she does that it sets us up to have a great game.”
Smith drew a five-pitch walk to open the game, and after a double steal of second and third with trailing runner Mckenna Rinewalt, came in to score on an RBI groundout to first to give NSU the 1-0 lead.
It is the 12th time this year and the seventh time in a row the Demons scored a run in the first inning of a game.
Buster struck out the first two batters she saw in the bottom of the inning and sat down 10 of the first 11 she faced in the game. The only Tiger to reach base in the first three innings came on a leadoff walk in the bottom of the second.
The Tigers’ lone hit came in the bottom of the fourth as a ground ball caromed off the leg of Buster in the circle.
With her 10th win of the season, Buster becomes the first pitcher since Maggie Darr in 2023 to record double-digit wins in a season.
