Demons travel to HCU for vital Southland series

HOUSTON, TX. (NSU) – Two closely matched teams with their postseason fates on the line square off this weekend as Northwestern State makes its final conference road trip of the year to HCU.

Both the Demons and the Huskies sit in a tie for the final Southland Conference Tournament spot entering the penultimate week of the season. With equal records in league play, the winner of the series takes a solid grip on securing a spot in the postseason tournament in Hammond, La., the second weekend in May.

The pivotal series begins with a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 4 p.m. with Saturday’s series finale set for a 12 p.m. start. Only the finale on Saturday will air on ESPN+ with live stat links available at www.nsudemons.com for both Friday games.

A sweep by either of the two teams would guarantee themselves a spot in the tournament, regardless of what happens on the final conference weekend.

Very little separates the two squads on paper to this point in the year. The Demons have scored more runs but the Huskies have hit more home runs, including a walk-off grand slam to take two of three from Nicholls two weeks ago. The Demons do have the edge in the circle, leading the HCU in every pitching category.

Against conference foes only this year the stats favor the Demons both offensively and in the circle as the Demons continue to have the fourth best team batting average in Southland play this year at .265, trailing only Southeastern, McNeese and UIW. The Huskies are hitting .234 against conference pitchers.

With such little separation in a critical series it often comes down to the intangible and hard to measure components of a team like grit, determination and momentum. The Demons seemingly have all three of those as evidenced by their play the past couple of weeks.

The most recent entry that may perhaps be the biggest in the favor of the Demons is momentum. An 8-6 comeback win against a good Louisiana Tech team on Tuesday, and the second come-from-behind win of their three now in a row overall, provided another bolt of “The Big Mo” heading into the weekend.

“It was a good team win,” first-year head coach Lacy Prejean said. “We faced some adversity in the game from some different places. The pitchers allowed our offense to catch up and get going later on in the game and I think that win is a good momentum builder going into this weekend.”

NSU got eight hits from eight different players with each of their eight runs in the game coming from a different player. The seven runs in the final two innings were the latest in a string of late-game offensive surges as well. NSU scored three in the sixth in a comeback win against Texas A&M-Commerce and put up 16 runs in the sixth or seventh innings of the last seven games.

“The more you can do that consistently, passing the bat down, the more success you have,” Prejean said. “That’s what we’ve done in those late-game situations. Putting the ball in play and creating some adversity for our opponents and capitalizing on it. We’re able to be a little more aggressive on the bases and it all works together.”

The Demons have had seven or more hits in four straight games, the longest such streak of the season and the 33 total hits during that time is tied for the second most in any four-game stretch since conference play began.

Even with the stats, the momentum and the late-game fight they’ve shown over the past two weeks, everything will still be decided on the field as the Demons look to take their own fate into their hands over the next two days.

“We have to just take one game at a time,” Prejean said. “We’re not going to let the moment get too big and have to win the first game before we can win the second and so on. Just have to go out there and leave it on the field and enjoy it. We’ve put ourselves in this position and we’re still fighting and grinding.

NSU has won 11 of last 12 game against HCU including a sweep the last time they played in Houston two years ago.

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