The rising Northwestern State softball team made a loud statement to the rest of the Southland Conference on Saturday, grinding out a series win against perennial power McNeese in dramatic fashion at the Demon Diamond.
Following a competitive 5-2 loss in the first game Saturday, Northwestern scored a 1-0, 10-inning triumph behind near-perfection from pitcher Mattison Buster and a walk-off RBI from freshman Mckenna Rinewalt.
The series begin Friday night with another walk-off victory for Northwestern, 7-6, when Sister Arnold flared a one-out, bases-loaded single over McNeese’s first baseman in the bottom of the seventh.
It is NSU’s first series win over McNeese since 2015, first in Natchitoches since 2011 and just the fifth conference series loss to any team for the Cowgirls since 2021.
“It shows that we can compete at a high level in this conference and we brought in the players to do that,” second-year Northwestern coach Jenny Fuller said. “We’re only trending up from here.”
Winning for the 11th time in 14 games, Northwestern rose to 14-15 overall and 4-2 in the Southland. McNeese (20-9, 4-2) entered the weekend standing 19th nationally in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index after an impressive early-season performance in non-conference competition.
McNeese jumped out to an early lead in the first game Saturday on a solo home run in the top of the first. Two straight singles to open the third led to two more runs and a 3-0 Cowgirl lead after three innings of play.
Rinewalt’s second home run of the season, a two-run shot in the fifth, pulled NSU within 3-2.
The Cowgirls got a solo homer to open the sixth and a leadoff double in the seventh led to an unearned run that made it a 5-2 final.
After 13 combined runs in the series opener on Friday and seven in game two, the bats for both teams were put on ice for the finale in an epic pitcher’s duel.
After tossing more than 100 pitches in a complete game win on Friday night, Buster followed with one of the most dominant outings of her career on Saturday to outduel McNeese’s Kynlei Chapman and Brookelyn Taylor.
Buster retired the first 17 batters she faced in a row to start the game before a harmless two-out single in the sixth, that was immediately erased as the runner left first base early on an attempted steal of second.
She faced one batter over the minimum in the game, surrendering a two-out walk, her only one of the game, in the seventh, and retired the final 10 batters of the game in a row to earn her 12th win of the season.
“She was incredible all weekend,” Fuller said. “She has kept us in ball games and is just so mentally tough. Nothing fazes her and I couldn’t be more proud of her for what she just did for this program.”
Buster held McNeese to their fewest hits in a conference game since 2021 and became the first Southland pitcher to win two games against the Cowgirls in the same series since Sam Houston’s Regan Dunn, also in 2021.
“I honestly wasn’t at my best yesterday,” Buster said. “I gave up quite a few runs but today the focus was throw hard, hit my spots and let my defense work and they absolutely worked their tails off today. I’m so proud of them.”
The Demons were hitless for seven innings before J.T. Smith slashed a single to right with one out in the eighth.
Her hit marked the first of three straight chances for the Demons with the winning run on base in extra innings. Smith was stranded at first after her hit, and Makynlie Jones drew a leadoff walk but was left standing at second in the ninth.
A leadoff walk in the 10th ignited the game-winning rally.
Arnold reached on a five-pitch free pass to start the inning. A Britt Bourgoyne sacrifice bunt and McNeese throwing error put runners at the corners with no outs and the top of the lineup at the plate.
Smith was walked to load the bases, putting the game in the hands of the freshman Rinewalt. After her 200-foot homer in game one, she found the perfect spot on a 40-foot dribbler to the right of the pitching circle to end the series.
“We had no outs luckily because the hitters in front of me worked the whole inning,” Rinewalt said. “So I was just saying to myself hit something on the ground or hit something deep and luckily I was able to hit something on the ground and run it out.
“It was awesome. I knew we had just won and believed the whole time that we were going to win. So for it to finally come true felt really good.”
The Demons go on the road next weekend to another SLC power, Southeastern.