By Brad Welborn, Northwestern State Assistant Sports Information Director; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – A wild walk-off and tough as nails pitching helped Northwestern State to a two-game split on the first day of the Northwestern State Classic on Saturday.
It took every bit of 10 innings for the Demons to wrap up their first win of the season and the first of the Division I variety for new head coach Jenny Fuller, beating Memphis 4-3 in their home opener and first game on their new turf field.
“It’s awesome,” Fuller said on getting her first win at NSU. “We’ve worked hard this season for that and we know that we’re going to go through ups and downs this year. So it felt good to beat Memphis, who is a big school, a well know school and they have a good coach. So we’re just really happy that we could grit that win out and pull through.”
With the bases loaded and one out, the seventh wild pitch of the day, and fourth from reliever Rylee Dugar, who went toe-to-toe with NSU’s Brooklynn Stohler over the final six-plus innings, allowed Brynn Daniel to swim move her way to the plate for the game winner.
“Once I got to third Coach Brad (Fuller) said passed ball be ready, because they’d had some earlier in the game,” Daniel said. “I was seeing the ball out of the pitcher’s hand and what the catcher was doing. I saw it hit the backstop and thought, oh I’m going. It bounced back to her pretty quick, but I didn’t have time to second guess myself.”
Daniel’s winning run capped a 2-for-4 day at the plate for the freshman where she had a hand in the Demons’ three other run earlier in the game.
A sharp two-out single through the right side in the bottom of the first scored a pair of runs and another bouncer up the middle in the third scored another, giving the Demons a 3-0 lead through the first three innings of the game.
“We had a game plan coming in on what she was going to be throwing,” Daniel said. “She had been jamming me inside so I knew she was going to try and go out so I was just thinking ground ball because the wind was blowing hard today. All the energy swings your way when you can get up like that. Going the opposite way for me is a big deal and I’m proud I got to come through for my team.”
Memphis’ response came right away with a three-run top of the fourth, highlighted by a two-run home run from designated player Marley Maness to tie the game. The frame served as the only blemish on an otherwise masterful pitching performance from freshman hurler Brooklynn Stohler.
After retiring 11 of the final 12 batters she faced in her most recent outing, Stohler locked down the Tiger bats following the fourth and saved her most clutch pitching for extra innings. She allowed just one hit between the fifth and seventh innings and three total the rest of the game.
Memphis had the go-ahead runner standing just 60 feet away in each of the final three innings. And each time Stohler stood her ground before jogging passed said runners on the way to her dugout after securing the third out. In the 10th inning, after the tiebreaker runner that started on second base stole third with one out, Stohler struck out the next two hitters to set up the eventual walk-off wild pitch.
“Brooklynn Stohler is awesome,” Daniel said. “I played with her in travel ball. She’s always been Brooklynn Stohler. She comes out, you know she’s going to do her job every single time. She might give up a run here and there, but she is going to do everything in her power to do her job the best that she can. The last eight innings they didn’t score. She was incredible.”
Like the Tigers, the Demons had their own fair share of chances to end the game before getting to double-digit innings. NSU had the winning run reach second in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, but each time were left standing there as the frame ended.
Of the 12 total runners left on base in the game for NSU, four came in the seventh inning or later.
“It was a huge relief,” Fuller said about finally seeing the winning run cross the plate. “We did have our chances to get it done earlier, but we’re just so young that a lot of them haven’t been in that situation before. They’re learning and they’re doing their best and that’s all I can as of them.”
The Demons did not have those same opportunities in the second game of the day against Jacksonville State.
Gamecock starter Kat Carter stymied the Demon bats, holding them to just two hits while striking out eight. She was provided plenty of run support at the dish as the Gamecock bats sprayed 14 hits across the field to the tune of 10 runs in a 10-0 run-rule win in six innings.
Jacksonville State scored single runs in the second, third and fifth, two runs in both the first and fourth and had a three-run sixth to close the game.
The Demons face off against both Memphis and Jacksonville State against on Sunday afternoon, with the first game against the Gamecocks set for 11:30 a.m. and the finale against the Tigers scheduled for 2 p.m. Both games can be seen on ESPN+.