By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team’s search for its seventh straight win started almost perfectly Friday night.
After the Demons jumped to an early five-run advantage, visiting McNeese’s bullpen quieted the Northwestern offense, allowing the Cowboys to rally for a 7-6 victory at Brown-Stroud Field to even the Southland Conference series at a game apiece.
“Too many mistakes in each phase of the game and too many self-inflicted wounds to expect a bit of a different result,” second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “I thought we played really well in the first three innings of the game, and then in the fourth inning we lost momentum and control of the game, and we never were able to do anything to grab it back and take it back to our side.”
After each team posted only single-run innings in Thursday night’s series opener, the Demons (32-19, 18-11) struck with a pair of multi-run innings in each of the first two frames.
Braden Benton’s two-run home run – his 10th of the season – highlighted the three-run first inning while the Demons took advantage of the first of two McNeese (31-14, 19-10) errors to score twice in the second against McNeese starter Sergio Lopez.
Lopez, however, minimized the second-inning damage after facing a bases-loaded, no-out jam, which began to swing the pendulum back to the visitors.
It fully shifted in the fourth inning when a leadoff walk and a hit by pitch put the first two runners aboard against Northwestern starter Tyler Bryan. Bryan’s up-and-in fastball did not appear to hit Larry Edwards Jr., and initially was ruled to have missed the right-handed hitter.
The call was overturned, however, allowing Edwards to reach base and set in motion a three-run inning that was aided by the first of three Demon errors on the night.
While McNeese rallied, using another unearned run in the sixth and their first earned run in the seventh, to tie the game, Northwestern could not solve a parade of Cowboys relievers.
Parker Morgan, Max Swenson and Blayne Fritcher all worked a scoreless inning out of the bullpen before Eric Nachstheim (2-0) carried the Cowboys to the finish with three innings of one-run relief.
That run came in the ninth after McNeese tallied a pair of unearned runs in their half of the final inning against relievers Caden Fiveash (1-1) and Austin Anderson.
A leadoff single and a pair of walks loaded the bases with nobody out before a one-out fielder’s choice and throwing error allowed two runs to score.
Those runs loomed large after the Demons put the first two runners aboard in the ninth against Nachstheim as Samuel Stephenson singled and Rocco Gump was hit by a pitch.
Northwestern pulled within one at 7-6 on Balin Valentine’s sacrifice fly and had the tying run on first before Nachstheim ended the game with a strikeout.
“I continue to be proud of the fight they showed, because they really did fight to the end,” Bertrand said. “That brand of baseball, in all phases of the game, is not indicative of the way we’ve played the last three weeks or so. We’ve got to learn from it and come out (Saturday) with a mind-set of getting back to cleaner baseball.”
The series concludes Saturday with a 2 p.m. first pitch on Senior Day. Right-hander Trent Hillen (6-1, 3.94) will take the mound for Northwestern against a to-be-determined McNeese starter. Ahead of the game, the Demons will honor a 15-player senior class.
McNeese 7, Northwestern State 6
McN 000 301 102 – 7 9 2
NSU 320 000 001 – 6 8 3
W – Eric Nachtsheim (2-0). L – Caden Fiveash (1-1). 2B – McN, Matt Stancliff, Seth Fontenot. NSU, Sebastian Huerta. 3B – McN, Mack Brousseau. NSU, Balin Valentine. HR – NSU, Braden Benton (10). Highlights: McN, Davis Meche 2-5; Larry Edwards Jr. 2-4, RBI; Fontenot 2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs. NSU, Valentine 2-4, 3B; Huerta 2-4, 2B.
Records: McNeese 31-14, 19-10; Northwestern State 32-19, 18-11.