NATCHITOCHES – The second season gets underway this weekend for Northwestern State when it opens the Southland Conference baseball slate against McNeese State, beginning with a 6:30 first pitch on Friday at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
The Demons (3-9) are coming off a 9-3 win over a hot Southern team on Wednesday night in a game that saw the club pound out a season-high 18 hits.
 
“We did a good job of manufacturing runs and getting the bat on the ball,” said Davis who is 8-4 in Southland season-opening series.  “The Southland is pretty tough and pretty balanced.  Anybody can beat anyone on any given weekend.  The league is off to another good start and it'll be a very competitive slate.”
 
The Demons had six hitters with two or more base knocks on Wednesday, including a 13-for-18 performance by the six through nine hole hitters.  Of those, third baseman Ryan Westbrook and center fielder Drew Helenihi each had four hits while Westbrook had a home run and three RBI.
 
For the season, the Demons saw their team batting average just 25 points after Wednesday night's game as shortstop Nick Hinojos leads the way with a .333 average.  First baseman Will Watson follows at .327 while left fielder Nick Doughty is at .318.
 
On the mound, the Demons will change up their rotation a bit and will go with regular Sunday starter Colin Bear in Friday night's opener.  Bear (0-2, 5.40) is still looking for his first win of the season and will be making his four start on the year.  Jacob Roark (1-1, 3.78) will start Saturday's 2 o'clock game while Davis has yet to announce a starter in Sunday's 1 p.m. finale.
 
Joe Scanio, NSU's regular Friday night starter, could get the nod on Sunday as he's coming off a 3.1 inning display at Southern on Wednesday night where allowed just one hit and struck out seven batters.
 
The Cowboys will enter the series with an identical 3-9 record and coming off a 14-8 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday.  McNeese has also dropped five of its last six games and are 2-4 away from its home park.
 
McNeese is hitting .271 as a team and is led by Taylor Drake's .419 batting average.
 
The Cowboys are expected to field the rotation of Trey Brown (0-1, 4.66), Blake Ware (1-1, 2.03) and Michael Clemens (0-1, 7.07) on the mound.
 
McNeese won two out of three games last year in Lake Charles as Davis is 7-5 against the Cowboys in his career as the Demons head coach.