CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – With just two weekends remaining in the Southland Conference softball regular season, Northwestern State finds itself exactly where it wanted to be – squarely in the hunt with everything still to play for.
The Lady Demons (23-22 overall, 12-9 in the SLC) visit the Gulf Coast island campus of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (11-34, 5-16) for a three-game set beginning today at 2 p.m. and concluding with a single game Saturday at 11 a.m.
NSU enters the penultimate weekend in a virtual tie for third place in the league standings, holding the tiebreaker over both Lamar and McNeese, the two teams with which they share a 12-9 mark. The Demons won both series with those teams.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position where what we do this weekend really matters,” second-year head coach Jenny Fuller said. “That’s all you can ask for this time of year. Our fate in a lot of ways is in our hands, and now it’s about going out and taking care of business one game at a time.”
Northwestern carries plenty of momentum into the series after one of its most complete offensive showings of the season. The Demons scored 20 runs on 32 hits and hit .337 as a team in a series win at Lamar, their third conference road series victory of the year, matching the program’s highest total in the past decade.
Four players collected at least four hits in the Lamar series, led by the steady duo of JT Smith and Brynn Daniel.
Both tallied six hits across the three games and turned in three-hit performances in the middle game of the series. Smith has pushed her season average to .317 and is tied with Daniel for the team lead with a .497 on-base percentage, while Aly Delafield and Peyton Young each climbed above the .320 mark following strong weekends of their own.
“Our offense is at its best when we stay aggressive but controlled,” Fuller said. “We’ve seen what we can do when we’re passing the bat and putting pressure on defenses like we did against Lamar. The key now is carrying that same mindset into this weekend, not trying to do too much, just trusting our approach and each other.”
In the circle, Mattison Buster continues to be the anchor of the Demons’ success. The junior transfer added two more complete-game wins against Lamar, pushing her Southland-leading total to 19 on the season while becoming just the fifth conference pitcher since 2021 to reach the 20-win mark. She is the first NSU pitcher to accomplish the feat since 2004.
Buster enters the weekend with a 2.79 ERA and has limited opposing hitters to a .240 batting average, and ranks as one of eight pitchers nationally with 20 wins this season.
“What Buster gives us is consistency and confidence,” Fuller said. “She does a great job of controlling lineups, mixing speeds and keeping hitters off balance. Our defense plays well behind her because she’s always around the zone and working ahead.”
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi comes into the series looking to build off a bright spot earlier this week. The Islanders snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 3-2 win at Nicholls, rallying for three runs in the sixth inning to secure the victory.
As the regular season winds down, the stakes continue to rise and the Demons are embracing that reality.
“This is the time of year you want to be playing meaningful games,” Fuller said. “We’ve earned that opportunity. Now it’s about staying focused, playing our brand of softball and putting ourselves in the best position heading into the conference tournament.”
