By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
MALIBU, California – Second-year Northwestern State baseball coach Chris Bertrand has preached family since taking over the program in June 2023.
Fittingly, two of the biggest swings of Saturday afternoon’s non-conference game at Pepperdine came from two Demons who were playing close to home and had plenty of friends and family at Eddy D. Field Stadium.
Sebastian Huerta’s one-out triple ignited a four-run sixth inning that put the Demons ahead to stay, and Northwestern excelled with two outs to add to the lead and clinch the series with a 10-5 victory over the host Waves.
The victory was the 30th of the season for the Demons, who reached that plateau for the first time since the 2019 season.
“Winning 30 baseball games in a Division I baseball season in today’s age is really difficult,” Bertrand said. “It’s something I’m very proud of our guys for accomplishing and for the way they accomplished it. That’s another Demon-type win right there. We’re aware it’s not the sexiest, but it’s probably the grittiest we’ve been in the way we picked each other up, the way we were able to extend the lead, and the way the bullpen picked us up in the middle part of the game.”
Trailing 4-3 in the sixth inning, Huerta laced a one-out triple off the center-field wall and scored when Hudson Brignac followed with a game-tying triple to right-center field off Austin Plisinski (0-2). A California native, Huerta finished 3-for-4 with his first double and triple of the season.
“Right when I saw the ball hit the wall, I saw the center fielder chasing it, I was going,” Huerta said. “Right when I hit second, I was gone. That shows how good Huddy is. He’s been great all year.”
Reese Lipoma continued the onslaught with a go-ahead RBI single before Samuel Stephenson turned a hanging 0-2 breaking ball into a rally-capping, two-run home run – the third round tripper of the game for the Demons (30-18), who had not homered since a four-homer game at Stephen F. Austin on April 25.
“That’s what we do, and why we call it gritty and call it family,” Bertrand said. “Bass, how cool is that? He gets to do it in front of his family. He’s a California kid who gets to do it in front of his family. That’s what Demon baseball is all about right there. In the biggest moments, the most critical moments, guys like that coming through for the game. We talked about Mason Wray after the game (Friday), but Bass is another one of those guys, it says something about the character of men – especially Bass – that those frustrations early in the season when things aren’t going your way not to let it drive you down but allow it to motivate you and put in that work.
“That guy’s out at our ballpark hitting at night. He’s taking swings when no one’s watching. He’s grinding for his team, so that he can find a way to contribute, and today he contributes in one of the biggest way.”
Balin Valentine’s first-pitch home run leading off the second inning gave Northwestern an early lead before Pepperdine (11-35) scored three times in the next inning against Tyler Bryan (2-6).
In the fifth, Rocco Gump’s seventh home run of the season – a two-run shot – tied the game. Gump surpassed his home run total from the 2024 season with plenty of family in the stands.
A Chandler, Arizona, native, who played summer ball in Orange County this past summer, Gump drove in his team-leading 46th and 47th runs of the year with the swing.
“There’s no better feeling than hitting a home run and being able to do it in front of my people,” Gump said. “That was great. People always say hitting is contagious, so it was one of those things, once we got the ball rolling and saw a couple of barrels fly out there, it got us going and where we needed to be.”
The Waves answered the four-run Demon surge with one of their own in the sixth before right-handers Adam Alexis and Dylan Marionneaux closed the game with 3 1-3 innings of shutout relief. That performance was aided by a brilliant leaping catch by Balin Valentine in the eighth inning after Clay Jung’s two-out, two-run single in top of the eighth doubled the Demon lead.
Alexis, who worked 1 2-3 scoreless innings Saturday, has worked 5-13 scoreless innings in his past four appearances.
“I went to junior college, and I’ve always known Adam’s had it in him,” Huerta said. “He’s a hard worker.”
The series concludes Sunday at 2 p.m. Central. Junior right-hander Trent Hillen (6-1, 3.94) will take the mound for Northwestern while Pepperdine has not named a starter.
Northwestern State 10, Pepperdine 5
NSU 010 024 021 – 10 15 2
Pepperdine 012 011 000 – 5 9 1
W – Tyler Bryan (2-6). L – Austin Plisinski (0-2). 2B – NSU, Balin Valentine, Sebastian Huerta. Pepperdine, Andrew Savage. 3B – NSU, Huerta, Hudson Brignac. Pepperdine, Esteban Sepulveda. HR – NSU, Valentine (7), Rocco Gump (7), Samuel Stephenson (6). Highlights: NSU, Reese Lipoma 2-4, RBI; Stephenson 2-5, HR, 2 RBIs; Braden Benton 2-5; Valentine 2-5, 2B, HR, RBI; Huerta 3-4, 2B, 3B; Brignac 2-5, 3B, RBI. Pepperdine, Nick Upstill 4-5, 2 RBIs; Sepulveda 2-4, 3B, RBI.
Records: Northwestern State 30-18; Pepperdine 11-35.