By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – Second-year head coach Chris Bertrand’s Northwestern State baseball team had one last regular-season response left in it Saturday.
For the second straight game, the Demons built a sizeable lead against visiting McNeese in the final regular-season Southland Conference series of 2025.
This time, Northwestern held on, grinding through a white-knuckle finish to secure a 7-6 victory in the regular-season finale at Brown-Stroud Field. With the victory, the Demons secured the No. 4 seed in next week’s Southland Conference Tournament and will head to Hammond for bracket play.
Northwestern and No. 5 seed McNeese will meet in a tournament-opening game for the second straight season.
“It’s a matter of perspective,” Bertrand said. “For the first six innings, I thought we were tremendous. Seven, eight, nine wasn’t the sexiest, but that’s OK because the perspective part of it is that you have to take away from it the incredible season we’ve had. You take away from it winning another series at home against an incredible baseball team. You take away from it getting to 33 wins and what it has meant to our ball club. You take away from it how we responded from (Friday). So many great things you can take from it, and that needs to be the focus.”
Northwestern (33-19, 19-11) responded from a late-inning meltdown in Friday’s middle game of the series to finish the 2025 season perfect in six home series, including all five Southland sets. The Demons went 12-3 at Brown-Stroud Field in league play and finished the regular season 20-5 in their home park.
They did so because they were able to built a 7-1 lead through six innings via execution and a few McNeese (31-15, 19-11) miscues.
Leading 3-1 after single runs in the first, third and fourth innings off starter Diego Corrales (0-3), the Demons broke through against reliever Parker Morgan in the sixth.
Morgan threw a perfect inning of relief in Friday’s win for McNeese, but he did not last an inning Saturday. After inducing an inning-ending double play upon entering in the fifth inning, Morgan faced four batters in the sixth and did not record an out.
Brooks Leonard led off with a single before Mason Wray was hit by a pitch and Hudson Brignac walked to load the bases. Fifth-year senior Reese Lipoma poetically highlighted the frame with a two-run double and scored his 60th run of the season to end the scoring.
“Bert was just telling us it was about having perspective,” Lipoma said. “We slipped up a bit at the end. We were able to pull through when it mattered. Our bullpen guys at the end picked us up. We need to do a better job extending the lead in the middle innings, but we got the start we wanted. It was a great series win and a good way to wrap it up.”
While the offense was building the lead, junior right-hander Trent Hillen (7-1) was dominant through 6 2-3 innings.
After allowing three hits and a run in the second inning, Hillen retired 15 straight Cowboys until Easton Dowell’s two-out single in the seventh. That hit seemed to awaken McNeese, which saw Bryce Jones deliver a three-run home run that bounced off the top of the center-field wall in the seventh.
“(Hillen) came in throwing a lot of strikes early,” Lipoma said. “You could tell his stuff was working. (Pitching coach) Dan (Hlad) and I were talking between innings. His slider was really banging for him. It was fun to watch him. Those are the kind of guys we have on this roster.”
Simon Larranaga and Jones then followed with leadoff home runs in the eighth and ninth innings before sophomore right-hander Austin Anderson stranded the tying run on second by inducing Mack Brousseau to fly out, fittingly to Lipoma to end the game.
“It was special,” Lipoma said. “There was a little bit of emotion, but it’s been great. I thought there was a chance it would come to me. I’m going to keep the ball and put it on a shelf somewhere.”
Northwestern State 7, McNeese 6
McN 010 000 311 – 6 9 4
NSU 101 104 00x – 7 8 1
W – Trent Hillen (7-1). L – Diego Corrales (0-3). S – Austin Anderson (2). 2B – McN, Marcus Huesohn. NSU, Reese Lipoma. HR – McN, Simon Larranaga (12), Bryce Jones 2 (2). Highlights: McN, Heusohn 2-4, 2B; Jones 3-4, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs. NSU, Lipoma 2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs; Balin Valentine 2-4.
Records: McNeese 31-15, 19-11; Northwestern State 33-19, 19-11.