By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – This time, the bounce with the way of Northwestern State.
For the second straight Southland Conference game, the Demons went to extra innings. In its home conference opener, Northwestern rallied past UIW, scoring the winning run of a 5-4 victory on an error in the 10th inning.
“It’s about grit, and it’s about guts, and it’s about toughness,” second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “We won the baseball game because we exhibited the characteristics of those things and because we picked each other up. I told them we need to learn to balance that out. From a baseball standpoint, we know we need to clean it up.”
After a four-run fourth inning gave the Cardinals (8-6, 0-4) the lead with ace Josh Salinas, a preseason first-team All-Southland selection, on the mound, the Demons (6-7, 1-3) began to chip away at the lead.
Three of the runs in that inning were unearned because of the first of three Northwestern errors on the night.
Daniel Burroway’s solo home run to start the fifth inning awakened the Demons, who manufactured another run that inning on a Reese Lipoma sacrifice fly.
Steady work from a trio of Northwestern relievers kept the deficit manageable while working around two more errors in the final four innings.
Former Airline standout Carter White tossed 3 1-3 scoreless innings of relief before Adam Alexis entered and stranded a runner in scoring position in the eighth.
Bryce Leonard (1-1) then worked two scoreless innings, stranding the bases loaded in the 10thto set up the Demons’ first extra-inning win of the season.
Leonard’s outing, which included a career-high three strikeouts, was emblematic of the Demons as a whole.
Leonard, a sophomore from Pierre Part, took the loss in the middle game of the series at Southeastern, allowing four runs in an inning. Friday night, he delivered one of the biggest pitches of the game, getting Daniel Calabrese to ground back to Leonard to strand the bases loaded in the 10th.
“Saturday at Southeastern was a day where I was ahead all game, and it was just the last pitches of the at-bat I was trying to do too much,” Leonard said. “I took that into this weekend, learned from it. Every pitch was the same. Nothing changes through the at-bat and just executing.”
The execution continued in the home half of the 10th after Braelin Pillot (0-1) issued back-to-back walks to Rocco Gump and Bryce Johnson to start the inning.
Balin Valentine’s perfect bunt between the pitcher’s mound and the third base line loaded the bases with no outs for Burroway, who grounded the first pitch he saw from reliever Bruno Robles to shortstop Ryder Hernandez.
Hernandez’ throw home bounced off catcher JD Gregson’s mitt, allowing Gump to slide home with the winning run and snap the Demons’ three-game Southland skid.
“Responders, we’ve talked about that word for two years now, and we’ve been impressing on our team the importance of being responders, the importance of having those characteristics,” Bertrand said. “Responding requires discipline, and Bryce was at the forefront of that, overcoming an error. Those are high-leverage situations. The people who had success tonight – Carter White and Bryce Leonard – and what we did at the plate tonight to make it a ball game and to give ourselves a chance to win, those guys are responders, and that’s what we’re cool with.”
The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. Right-hander Tyler Bryan (0-1, 9.75) will start for the Demons.
Northwestern State 5, UIW 4, 10 innings
UIW 000 400 000 0 – 4 10 1
NSU 000 020 110 1 – 5 7 3
W – Bryce Leonard (1-1). L – Braelin Pillot (0-1). 2B – UIW, Rey Mendoza, Ryder Hernandez. NSU, Rocco Gump. HR – NSU, Daniel Burroway (5). Highlights: UIW, Daniel Calabrese 2-6, RBI; Hernandez 3-5, 2B, RBI. NSU, Balin Valentine 2-5; Mason Wray 2-3.
Records: UIW 8-6, 0-4; Northwestern State 6-7, 1-3.