The Northwestern State baseball team is still searching for a game-changing hit.
The Demons could not find it Tuesday night as they fell to ULM, 4-1, at Brown-Stroud Field. The Warhawks avoided being swept in the three-game season series which began in mid-February.
“I’m really proud of the pitchers who took the mound today, and I thought they threw the ball exceptionally well,” third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “We posted a zero in the error column, and I thought we really even made some nice plays defensively in order to get our team off of the field when we had two outs. It was still another night of us being unable to find any type of offensive rhythm or really being able to pressurize our opponent in any way.”
The Demons (23-18) dropped their sixth straight game and have scored two runs or less in five straight games.
Northwestern, which leads the Southland Conference in earned run average, got quality outings from right-handers Chase Prestwich (1-3) and Caleb Muffoletto, who limited ULM (22-19) to two runs and five hits across the first five innings.
Both of ULM’s first two runs came on solo home runs – one from Kade Dupont in the second and one from Micah Dean in the fifth – which staked right-hander Seaver Sheets (2-1) to an early lead.
“They responded to a lot of things,” Bertrand said. “They responded to not only the homers, but they responded when they did have some traffic. We did a good job of responding when we found ourselves in some adverse counts, and they did a great job of executing pitches in the middle innings and late in counts. Those two guys were exceptional, and the ball was really coming out of Logan Trotter’s hand pretty well. It’s encouraging to see a freshman come into that big situation and throw the ball well.”
Sheets tossed a career-long 5 1-3 innings, allowing just one run.
That run came in the sixth inning when the Demons put the most pressure on Sheets.
Thomas Marsala III reached on an error following Joe Siervo’s one-out single. A batter later, Ethan Menard smoked an RBI single off reliever Caleb Strmiska to pull the Demons within a run.
After Strmiska walked Noah McNeil to load the bases, he induced an inning-ending double play to maintain the lead.
That stood as the Demons’ last best chance as Tyler Roark struck out four in three innings of two-hit relief to earn his second save of the season.
“We’ve got to find a way to score some runs in some way,” Bertrand said. “We’ve got to find a way to be able to pressure on the opposing pitching staff.”
Today, the Demons travel to Baton Rouge to finish a home-and-home season series with Southern. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Lee-Hines Stadium.
