After a six-run sixth inning broke up a scoreless pitching duel, it appeared the Northwestern State baseball team was on its way to a decisive victory in Sunday’s Southland Conference series finale against New Orleans at Brown-Stroud Field.
However, as per their modus operandi, the Demons allowed the Privateers to make things interesting before Lucas Harrington closed out a 6-5 series-clinching win for Northwestern.
“It’s not Demon baseball (to do it the easy way), but I think it’s pride and it’s balance,” third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “We’re very proud of the way we found a way to win. We overcame some things and found a way to put up zeroes and hang on. You win a conference series. You win one at home. There’s so much to be proud about.
“The balance part of it is that we obviously have some baseball things we have to do better.”
NSU recovered from a 3-2 loss in the Friday night series opener to notch a 6-2 victory in Saturday’s Game 2. Demon junior right-hander Dylan Marionneaux spun his second career complete game, scattering seven hits.
The first five and a half innings of Sunday’s game were reserved for the starting pitchers as New Orleans left-hander Riley Marcotte and Northwestern right-hander Trent Hillen kept the game scoreless until the bottom of the sixth.
The Demons (15-9, 8-4) broke through first as Ethan Menard’s leadoff double sparked a six-run uprising.
Menard’s shot to the right-center field gap and Thomas Marsala III’s groundout to second forced Marcotte from the game. New Orleans reliever Luke Lycette relieved Marcotte and issued three straight walks, including an RBI bases-loaded free pass to Michael McAloose to score the first run of the game.
Lycette then jumped ahead of Demon catcher Sebastian Huerta 0-2 before Huerta knocked a two-run single to center field to give the Demons a 3-0 lead.
“I was sitting slider the whole at-bat,” Huerta said. “He was struggling with his command, so I was hesitant at first. When it got to 0-2, I just had to buckle down for the team.”
The team followed Huerta’s lead as Zach White followed with an RBI double off the top of the right-field wall that drove Lycette from the game. Sam Ardoin added a sacrifice fly and Brooks Leonard delivered an RBI single against Luke Hymel to cap the inning.
Hillen (2-1) was the beneficiary of the run support, but the length of the inning, which included two mid-inning pitching changes, affected his sharpness.
After allowing just two hits in the first six shutout innings, Hillen was greeted by a run of four straight singles from the Privateers (10-16, 4-8).
With the tying run at first base and two outs in the ninth, Bertrand brought in Lucas Harrington.
Harrington fell behind Eli Tidwell 3-0 before getting a called third strike on a full-count pitch to secure his third save and the Demons’ third straight Southland series win.
“Those guys (in the bullpen) have been consistent all year,” Huerta said. “They’re just dogs on the mound. I had 100 percent faith in them.”
The Demons held on to first in the Southland standings through three weeks. They return to action Tuesday when they begin a seven-game road trip at ULM. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Lou St. Amant Field.
SOFTBALL: In Hammond, Northwestern had chance after chance to put runs on the board on Saturday, but more often than not came up empty in a 2-1 loss to Southland Conference leader Southeastern.
The Lady Demons (14-18, 4-5) left 10 runners on base in the game, including seven through the first four innings, missing their chance to apply even more pressure to the Lady Lions (26-9, 9-0) than they already were.
“We did a lot of good things to give ourselves chances, but we just couldn’t get the timely hit when we needed it,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “Against a team like Southeastern, you have to capitalize on those opportunities because runs are hard to come by against the caliber pitching that they have.”
SLU won the first game of a Friday doubleheader 10-2, then walked off the nightcap 3-1 on a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. The Lady Lions had scored run-rule victories over their last six opponents but danced on the edge of losses in the final two games against Northwestern.
The Demons are home next weekend for a Friday-Saturday SLC series against East Texas A&M.