EDINBURG, Texas – Fittingly, a final at-bat win gave the Northwestern State baseball team its first Southland Conference road sweep since 2016.
Thomas Marsala III’s RBI groundout in the ninth inning was the winning margin in a 6-5 victory at UT-Rio Grande Valley on Saturday, capping a three-game conference sweep and pushing the Demons’ win streak to four. After opening with a 17-9 rout Thursday night that was broken open with five-run innings in the seventh and eighth, a comeback victory Friday night was ignited in the seventh frame again for a 9-6 NSU triumph.
Saturday’s series finale resulted from another Northwestern rally. It was the Demons’ eighth last-at-bat win of the season.
“For those who know us, you don’t hear it often but I’m almost at a loss for words for what our guys continue to do,” third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “The reason they continue to do it is because of who they are. I couldn’t be any more proud of the entire ball club. I couldn’t be anymore proud for everyone who’s a stakeholder in this that our team continues to exhibit the characteristics they do. They continue to play in the manner they do. It’s not just winning on the scoreboard, it’s the way they continue to do things. They continue to overcome adversity. They continue to pick each other up and do what it takes to win.”
What it took Saturday was an offense that again found some late-game magic.
After seeing a pair of two-run leads disappear, the Demons (21-10 overall, 13-5 in the Southland) found themselves trailing for the first time as UTRGV (14-18, 9-9) took advantage of two seventh-inning errors to move ahead 5-4.
Bryce Johnson’s RBI single off the left-field wall scored Marsala with the tying run in the eighth before for the third time this season, Marsala delivered in his last at-bat, game-winning RBI of the spring an inning later.
Marsala’s one-out ground ball to second with the bases loaded off of Kike Cienfuegos (0-2) brought home Sam Ardoin with the go-ahead run that re-established a lead for the Demons, who last swept a road conference series May 13-15, 2016, at Nicholls.
“His changeup was looking really good, and it really tailed away a lot in that at-bat,” said Marsala, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. “I was just trying to get on the plate, put it in play and get a run for our guys. We have such great chemistry, and we’re short on position players, but I think that brings us closer together, because we’re really fighting for each other.”
Armed with the lead, Carter White (1-3) allowed a leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt before battling back from a 3-0 count to strike out UTRGV leadoff hitter Rocco Garza Gongora for the second out of the inning.
Bertrand turned to Wesley Marien to close the game, which he did by delivering a three-pitch strikeout of Thomas Williams to cap the sweep.
White backed up a solid start from Trent Hillen (6 IP, 4 R) with 2 2-3 innings of relief, allowing only an unearned run. After the Vaqueros scored the unearned run in the seventh, White escaped the bases-loaded, no-out jam without further damage, setting up another comeback victory for the Demons.
“When we went out there to talk to Carter about it – albeit maybe a little forcefully – when Carter competes in the manner we need him to, that’s the result you get,” Bertrand said. “That’s what we want him to continue to do. That’s what we want him to get back to and be consistent with. His stuff is good enough and his experience is at a high level. He’s capable of doing really special things for the Demons when the competitive spirit is in the right frame of mind and the pitches are being driven with intent and purpose into the strike zone.”
After a couple of comeback victories to start the series, the Demons jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Brooks Leonard started the game with a triple and scored on Joe Siervo’s RBI single.
Leonard also started a two-run third inning rally with a leadoff walk. A junior from Pierre Part, Leonard finished the weekend 8-for-14 with five runs scored atop the lineup as he, Siervo and Marsala – the top three hitters in the lineup – scored five of the six runs Saturday.
“I don’t know that there are enough words and enough time to express what Brooks Leonard means to this baseball team and means to this baseball program,” Betrand said. “The model he sets in work ethic, in teammate and character, in I’ll do anything for the team coach, it’s absolutely incredible. He is the heart and soul of what we have going – make no mistake about it. Same thing for Tommy. Thomas having the type of season he’s having and doing what he’s doing for the Demons when everybody knows who he is and what he is for us and what he means to us – to be able to pull it off when the stakes are the highest is absolutely incredible.”
The Demons return to action Tuesday when they host Louisiana Tech in the first of a five-game homestand. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
