By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
The transfer portal brought Mattison Buster from Louisiana Tech to Northwestern State for the 2026 season. Now the portal has carried her west to her home state of Texas, where she will join recently departed NSU coaches Jenny and Brad Fuller at Baylor.
In a move that was not unexpected, Buster followed her pitching coach, Mrs. Fuller, to Waco after the portal opened Monday for softball competitors. Baylor announced the move Tuesday. Buster, a native of Sulphur Springs, Texas, played her first two seasons at Louisiana Tech, then relocated to NSU to play for Fuller.
It was a big success. The Lady Demons had the nation’s second-biggest win-total improvement, upping their victory count by 17 in the 2026 season. Buster was the cornerstone.
Buster was the Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year and a first-team All-SLC pitcher. She also earned Academic All-District honors from the College Sports Communicators.
Buster was the only SLC pitcher to throw more than 100.0 innings in conference play. She led the league with 59 strikeouts and tied for the most Southland wins with 11.
She established herself as one of the league’s top pitchers when she became the first hurler since 2021 to earn two wins in the same series against McNeese, the eventual SLC Tournament champion and an NCAA Tournament entry. Three weeks later, she twirled back-to-back shutouts on the road at SFA as part of a stretch of 19.2 straight scoreless innings pitched.
She also became the first three-time recipient of an SLC weekly award, earning Pitcher of the Week on March 2, March 16 and April 6. Against the top two seeds in the conference tournament, she held Southeastern (3) and McNeese (1) to the fewest hits in an SLC game this year and was the only SLC pitcher this year to throw a complete game shutout against McNeese.
Overall, Buster led the conference in complete games (21), games started (32), innings pitched (198.0), pitching appearances (38), shutouts (6), strikeouts (111) and wins (21). She is one of 12 pitchers in the country with 20 or more wins this year, just the fifth Southland pitcher in the past five years to record 20 wins in a season, and tied the NSU school record with 21 wins.
Northwestern’s new coach is Jason Anderson, who was extremely successful in the past 12 seasons at Division II Southern Arkansas, including a pair of College World Series appearances and a third-place finish in 2017.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com