Each week the Northwestern State softball program continues to take steps forward in its rebuild. The Lady Demons look to take another this week hosting East Texas A&M in a three-game series beginning today at the Demon Diamond.
The fourth conference series of the year begins with a 4 p.m. doubleheader and concludes with a noon first pitch on Saturday. All three games will air on ESPN+ with the opener today and the finale on Saturday also available locally in Natchitoches on 100.7 KZBL FM.
Today’s doubleheader opener will serve as NSU softball’s annual Fork Cancer game, with special guests scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the series opener. Saturday’s finale is Fan Appreciation Day, with games and giveaways planned before and during the contest.
Northwestern (14-18 overall, 4-5 in the SLC) enters the weekend looking to turn a pair of close loses on the road with conference-leading Southeastern into wins at home against a different set of Lions (6-28, 1-8) from the conference.
“It’s always painful to lose games like that because we want to win but I think we played really well against them on the road which was promising,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “We really only had one bad inning against them and played really good ball the rest of the series. Not into moral victories but it was another step in the right direction for us.”
The Demons stranded eight runners in the opener and 10 in the finale against the Lady Lions, the most left on base in a single game this season.
JT Smith has continued to be the spark at the top of the NSU lineup, riding her recent hot streak to a team-best .337 batting average. She is reaching base in nearly half of her plate appearances with a .492 on-base percentage, the second-highest mark in the Southland.
East Texas A&M arrives in Natchitoches looking to snap a four-game skid after being swept by Lamar last weekend and falling 8-6 to Grambling in midweek action. The Lions have dropped 24 of their last 25 games, with their lone win in that stretch coming during the second conference weekend at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
East Texas A&M has used seven different pitchers and enters the weekend with a staff ERA above 8.50 while opponents are batting .368 and scoring an average of 8.8 runs per game.
BASEBALL: In Thibodaux, the Demons open the first of back-to-back Southland Conference road weekend series tonight at 6 at Nicholls, extending a run of hometown returns for Northwestern. The series also includes a 6 p.m. Saturday matchup and a 1 p.m. Sunday matinee series finale. All three games will air on ESPN+ with free streaming audio available on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices.
Northwestern (16-9 overall, a league-leading 8-4 in the SLC) extended its winning streak to three games Tuesday night with a 5-0 victory at ULM, which served as a return home for first baseman Thomas Marsala III, who homered and drove in two runs in the game.
“We talk about learning life lessons,” third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “We talk about pulling value from every moment in every situation. We talk about teammates making each other better. That’s the impact of a great team is that you have great players, but sometimes it’s overlooked that great players are not just found in the numbers. They’re found in how they can make others around them better and how others around them can learn. That’s definitely something we want to do.
“We’re going to learn from Thomas’ experience. We’re going to learn from what a chance that Brooks Leonard and (Trent) Hillen and Brody (Trosclair) and all of those guys get a chance to do this weekend, and we’re pretty confident that we know it’s going to happen on down the line.”
Freshman left-hander Brody Trosclair (3-1), a Thibodaux native, will make his third straight series-opening start and will do so in his hometown. Right-hander Trent Hillen (2-1), set to start Sunday’s series finale, returns to the place he began his collegiate career.
Brooks Leonard, who has hit .348 and scored 16 runs in 16 games as Northwestern’s leadoff hitter, and his twin brother, Bryce, will play in the closest Division I ballpark to their hometown of Pierre Part, which is 38 miles from Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray E. Didier Field.
Friday will mark Trosclair’s first road start of his career after moving into the rotation for the Demons’ home series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Northwestern took its first road series of league play three weeks ago at Incarnate Word, winning two of three games in an extremely offensive environment.
That likely will not be the case this weekend.
Northwestern and Nicholls (13-13, 5-6) enter the weekend with two of the top pitching staffs in the Southland Conference.
The Demons lead the league in ERA (3.81) while Nicholls (4.93) ranks third. Nicholls leads the league in fewest hits per nine innings allowed (7.91) while the Demons rank second (7.94). The Colonels have struck out 273 hitters, second in the league, while the Demons rank third with 249.
