NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State will welcome a former College World Series participant this weekend to Brown-Stroud Field when the Demons open a three-game series against Missouri State beginning Friday night at 6:30.
 
The Demons (2-6) will be looking to bounce back from two mid-week losses at fifth-ranked Texas A&M while Missouri State (6-3), a 2003 College World Series qualifier, is coming off a 7-1 win over perennial powerhouse Oklahoma State in its last outing.
 
The Bears are a member of the Missouri Valley Conference and returns eight position starters and seven pitchers off of a squad that finished 33-23 last season.
 
“They're an outstanding team who entered the season in the preseason rankings.  They're a tough-nosed type of team that'll come at us hard and take the extra base and be very aggressive. 
 
“It's a very good home series.  It's not often when a team of their caliber comes into Brown-Stroud Field to play a three-game series.”
 
The Demons will shake up their pitching rotation a bit this weekend but will still start RHP Joe Scanio in Friday's opener.  Scanio (1-1, 2.84 ERA) was dealt his first loss as a Demon last Friday against Southern but will enter the game ranked tied for second in the Southland Conference with 16 strikeouts.
 
Left-handed hurler Colin Bear (0-1, 5.40) has been moved up to start Saturday's 5 p.m. game while RHP Jacob Roark (1-0, 3.75), who pitched five good innings at Texas A&M this past Tuesday, will start Sunday's 1 o'clock finale.
 
The Bears will match NSU with three righties – Nick Petree (1-1, 3.21) on Friday, Pierce Johnson (0-1, 3.86) on Saturday and Cody Schumacher (1-0, 8.38) on Sunday.
 
Offensively, the Demons will head into the series hitting .236 as a team with shortstop Nick Hinojos topping the unit with a .424 batting average.  The senior is coming off a remarkable two games at A&M where he had three hits in the series, two of those identical three-run home runs.
 
First baseman Will Watson picked up four lead-off hits in the series and has seen his average improve to 281 on the season while Colin Bear, a senior designated hitter, is batting .353 when he's not on the mound.
 
The Bears are batting .262 as a squad and have three players hitting over .400 for the year.  Right fielder Spiker Helms tops the team with a .474 average to go along with six doubles, two homers and 11 RBI.  Second baseman Kevin Medrano is hitting .407 and first baseman Brock Chaffin is batting .400.
 
“There's going to be a lot of quality baseball out at the park this weekend,” said Davis.  “We'll have numerous scouts in attendance looking at players from both teams.”
 
Saturday's game which was originally scheduled for a 2 o'clock start has been moved back to a 5 p.m. first pitch.