Gary Hardamon

Three-run inning helps Demons past Southern

2/25/2012 5:57:00 PM

NATCHITOCHES— Northwestern State used a three-run fourth inning to open up a one-run lead and Mason Melotakis shut the door in the late innings as the Demons beat Southern University by a score of 5-3 Saturday afternoon at in baseball action at Brown-Stroud Field.

Nick Hinojos, who finished the game 3-for-4 at the plate, started the rally in the fourth with a single down the third base line.  Demon second baseman Ryan Westbrook was walked by Jags starting pitcher Jose De Leon and after a strikeout, right fielder Jordan Buckley came to the plate and was walked for the second time in the game by De Leon which loaded the bases full of Demons with just one out.

After a pitching change, Southern reliever John Thigpen hit first baseman Will Watson to score Hinojos and make it 3-1.

Center fielder Drew Helenihi came to the plate and hit the first pitch he saw to centerfield to score Westbrook while Nick Purdy followed with a fielders' choice to score the third run of the inning that gave the Demons a 5-1 cushion.

“We addressed several things (after the loss Friday) and today we were focusing on energy and coming out ready to play,” said head coach J.P. Davis. “Taking care of the baseball and getting better at-bats, and we feel we had all of that today.

“They brought in that left-hander (Thigpen) that threw a little softer than we're used to seeing and we had to adjust, but that is something we have to keep doing,” said Davis. “We put the three runs up in the fourth and that was the difference in the ball game.”

A.J. Funk took the hill as the starter for the Demons and pitched 3.2 innings giving up a run in the fourth that eventually led to him being pulled in the top of the fourth.

Jacob Roark came in and shut down the rest of the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings before giving up two solo home runs in the seventh.

“Roark came in and calmed it down for two innings and threw well, but then he started to leave the ball up, and if you leave the ball up against guys like that, they will make you pay,” said Davis. “That's what they did.”

Roark was able to finish the seventh after giving up the homers to Cameron McGriff and Jeremy Lopez, but the eighth and ninth innings belonged to Melotakis.

“Melo came in and did a nice job in the eighth and ninth and pretty much shut it down,” said Davis.

The junior southpaw pitched two innings and gave up no hits or walks and struck out three batters.

The Demons started the game off hot scoring two runs in the first inning on a Helenihi single and a Colin Bear RBI double.  Bear scored on a hustle play from second when Nick Doughty was able to reach on an error by De Leon.

“I was very pleased with our effort today and the bottom line is we have to come out tomorrow and compete and win the series,” said Davis.

The two teams will play the rubber match on Sunday at 1pm at Brown-Stroud Field.
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