While the Northwestern State baseball team is home for a weekend series, softball and track teams are headed south for competition today and Saturday.
SOFTBALL: Northwestern State takes its hottest stretch of the season on the road this weekend, traveling to league-leading Southeastern for a three-game Southland Conference series and the annual Cypress Trophy showdown.
The Lady Lions (23-9 overall) are a perfect 6-0 in conference competition, and enter the series on a nine-game winning streak, including six straight run-rule victories.
The Lady Demons (14-15, 4-2) have won eight of their last 10 games, their best 10-game stretch since winning 11 of 12 during the 2022 season, and begin the weekend having outscored opponents 80-32 over their last 12 contests.
This weekend’s series once again carries added meaning with the teams playing for the Cypress Trophy, a rivalry award created through the efforts of Marcia and Cameron Barr, who donated a bald cypress, the Louisiana state tree, to both universities to be planted at their respective facilities.
Northwestern won the trophy in the first two meetings in which it was contested in 2019 and 2021, but Southeastern) has held it the past four seasons after sweeping the Demons each year.
The series begins today with a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. and concludes with a single Saturday game at noon. All three games of the Cypress Trophy series will air on ESPN+, with live stats available at nsudemons.com. Both the series opener on Friday and the series finale on Saturday can also be heard locally in Natchitoches on 100.7 FM KZBL.
NSU enters the weekend with momentum on both sides of the ball, led by reigning Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week Mattison Buster.
The junior right-hander earned her second weekly honor of the season after tossing a 10-inning, one-hit shutout against McNeese last Saturday to give Northwestern a surprising series win over the highly-regarded Cowgirls. McNeese was ranked 19th in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index beginning last weekend.
Through two conference series, Buster owns a 2.08 ERA with 21 strikeouts while holding league hitters to a .190 average. She has four wins and four complete games in five conference appearances.
“I’m so proud of her because McNeese had some huge wins over the course of the season and nowadays it’s harder than ever to pitch the first and third game of a series,” NSU coach Jenny Fuller said. “She did that and came out with two wins and in today’s climate that is huge. I’m so proud of her for stepping up and she was at her best when her best was needed.”
Offensively, the Demons have shown patience at the plate during their recent run of success.
JT Smith, Brynn Daniel and Sister Arnold all have 15 or more walks this season and rank among the top 10 in the conference in the category, helping Northwestern move into third in the league with 104 walks as a team.
Smith carries a 13-game reached-base streak into the weekend, while Daniel has reached safely in 11 straight games for the second time this season and Makynlie Jones has reached in nine straight.
“We’re excited to play a team as good as Southeastern,” Fuller said. “They’ve had some huge wins too and made the NCAA Tournament the past couple of years. So we’re preparing for how they play and excited to go down there and compete.”
Southeastern leads the Southland in six offensive categories and three pitching categories and ranks eighth nationally with a 1.94 team ERA.
“Their pitching is just so solid,” Fuller said. “They have multiple pitchers with ones for their ERA. Their hitting is really good too and they play with a lot of energy. For us to go there and compete we’re definitely going to have to be dialed in on what we are doing.”
TRACK & FIELD: A much-deserved break after the indoor season ends today for the Northwestern State men’s and women’s teams, whose outdoor season begins with a trip to Lafayette for the Louisiana Classics, a two-day meet that begins today.
Only a few field events are slated today: the women’s javelin and men’s discus begin at 3 p.m., while the men’s javelin and women’s discus follow at 5 p.m. Both events were not contested in the indoor season.
Both NSU teams finished in the Southland Conference’s top three in the indoor season, including a second-place finish by the men. Greater opportunities are ahead, said head coach Mike Heimerman.
“The outdoor season is what we are probably a little better suited for,” he said. “This is what we look forward to. Nothing beats being outside unless it gets too too hot. We are just excited to get back and doing some competition and it being such hard travel.”
The women have won the past two outdoor Southland Conference crowns and aim for a third after not winning an outdoor crown prior to that.
Next Saturday, March 28, will be Northwestern’s only home meet, the Leon Johnson NSU Invitational at the speedy new Mondo track oval in the refurbished Walter P. Ledet Track Complex.
