NATCHITCOCHES – Northwestern State will attempt to keep its hold on sole possession of second place in the Southland Conference baseball standings this weekend when it opens a three-game league series at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 on Friday at Brown-Stroud Field followed by a 2 o'clock start on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.  Fans who can't make the game can follow live stats online at nsudemons.com or real-time updates by following on Twitter at @NSUDemonsBSB.
 
The Demons (13-17, 9-6 SLC) are four games behind league leader Sam Houston State and one game up on a group of teams in third including Southeastern Louisiana, Texas-Arlington, Texas State and McNeese State.  Corpus Christi (13-19, 6-9) is sitting in a tie with Stephen F. Austin in ninth place and has lost seven of its last nine games, including series losses in its last four conference outings.
 
NSU is coming off a nice come-from-behind win at Grambling on Tuesday after getting swept at Sam Houston State last weekend in a series that saw the Demons get outscored by only a 14-10 margin.  The Demons held a lead in all three games before falling.
 
The Demons will stick with the regular weekend rotation of LHP Colin Bear (2-4, 4.67 ERA), RHP Jacob Roark (2-2, 3.74) and LHP Andrew Adams (1-3, 6.59) while the Islanders will throw RHP Trevor Foss (0-4, 7.58), LHP Adam Hoelscher (5-3, 3.38) and RHP Daniel Minor (5-1, 1.55).  Minor is 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA in conference games and has one complete game shutout to go along with a combined shutout in five league starts.
 
Offensively, the Demons rank second in the league in hitting in SLC only games with a .277 batting average, trailing only Sam Houston State's .336 league only mark.  Demon centerfielder Drew Helenihi tops the team with a .370 conference batting average followed by leftfielder Will Watson's .367 mark.
 
Overall, NSU is hitting .264 as a team with Watson leading the way with a .330 average followed by Helenihi at .327 and is on a 12-game hitting streak – the longest of the season for any Demon player, and is hitting .408 with 20 hits during that span.
 
Corpus is batting .231 at a team for the season and .236 in conference games.  Shortstop Drew Vest and third baseman Eric Weiss are tied as the team leaders with .267 batting averages while outfielder Jordan Lee is hitting .323 in conference games.
 
AMCC took two out of three from the Demons last year at Corpus Christi but swept the Islanders the previous three series.  Demon head coach J.P. Davis is 10-2 against the Islanders in his time as the team's skipper.