Box Score NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State pitcher Colin Bear's masterful pitching performance and a two-run seventh inning helped the Demons to a 2-1 win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Friday night in Southland Conference baseball action.
 
With the win, Northwestern State improves to 14-17 overall with a 10-6 record in conference to hold on to sole position of second place.  Corpus Christi drops to 13-20 overall with a 6-10 conference record.  The Demons will go for series win at 2 o'clock on Saturday.
 
Bear improved his record to 3-4 on the season after he allowed just one run on four hits in seven innings pitched beating Islander starter Trevor Foss (0-5) who threw 6.1 innings and gave up two runs on three hits.
 
“Bear was able to give us the start that we needed, and it was never more an appropriate time than when their guy is dialing it up out there,” said head coach J.P. Davis. “They were matching each other with zeros.”
 
At one point Bear retired 11 in a row and Foss 14 straight.
 
The seventh inning proved to be the game-changing frame when centerfielder Drew Helenihi reached on an error by Corpus second baseman Jermie Marek to lead off the inning.
 
After a single from Jordan Buckley and sacrifice bunt from Will Watson, Helenihi scored on an infield single from Nick Hinojos in which no one was covering first base.
 
Corpus Christi made a change at pitcher going with Franco Pace who quickly gave up a bunt single to Nick Purdy to load the bases.
 
Another pitching change followed and Corpus reliever Phillip Garcia walked Matt Baca to score Buckley and give the Demons a 2-1 lead.
 
“We were fortunate enough to they made some miscues and we were able to take advantage and score a couple runs,” said Davis
 
After surrendering a leadoff single to start the eighth, Joe Scanio came to close out the game to earn his second save of the season.
 
Corpus took a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning when Santiago Ruiz tripled to rightfield and was knocked in on a single by Drew Vest.
 
Hinojos led the Demons offensively collecting two of the five hits from the Demons and getting the RBI that tied the game.