NATCHITOCHES – After a brilliant pitching display by Northwestern State in its 3-2 win over Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday night to snap a seven-game losing streak, the Demons will be looking to build some momentum heading into this weekend's Southland Conference series against Southeastern Louisiana beginning 6:30 on Friday at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
The series will continue with a 2 o'clock game on Saturday followed by the series finale at 1 on Sunday.
 
NSU (15-24, 10-11 SLC) has dropped its last three conference series after starting the season with four consecutive series wins.  And after having lost eight of their last nine league games, Demon head coach J.P. Davis is shaking up the weekend rotation in hopes of getting good starts on the mound.
 
“The key to beating ULM was the good start we got out of (Jamie) Bittle,” said Davis.  “He gave us the start we've been looking for.”
 
Bittle, a freshman lefty, threw perfect ball the first 3.1 innings in Wednesday night's game and notched his first career win after he threw six scoreless.  He could be pivotal in NSU's success this weekend.
 
NSU hasn't had a starting pitcher make it through the sixth inning in conference play since Colin Bear threw seven innings in a 3-1 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi back on April 13. 
 
That has forced Davis to turn to standout closer Mason Melotakis as Friday night's starter.  Melo, who has not started a game this season, is 2-3 on the year with a 3.26 ERA in 19 appearances.  He has seven saves on the year and has struckout 41 batters in 38.2 innings pitched.
 
Jacob Roark (2-4, 5.10) is expected to start on Saturday while Bear (3-5, 4.45) will move back to Sunday's start.
 
Offensively, the Demons have hit the ball hard but not finding the gaps and in return has seen their team average fall to .256. 
 
Will Watson leads the team with a .316 average while Drew Helenihi, who has reached base in 22 consecutive games, is hitting .301.
 
The Lions will enter the series 28-14 overall and coming off a 4-3 loss to nationally ranked LSU on Wednesday.
 
SLU is currently tied with Texas-Arlington in the conference standings with a 13-8 record – three games ahead of the Demons and four back of first place Sam Houston State.  NSU is tied with Central Arkansas for sixth place but just one game out of fourth.
The Lions are fifth in the league with a team batting average of .272 but are second in pitching with a team ERA of 3.19. 
 
SLU is expected to go with the pitching rotation of RHP Joseph Koon (3-1, 5.67), LHP Jordan Hymel (5-3, 3.05) and LHP Buck Bernard (2-0, 2.06).  The Lions also possess one of the league's top closers in Stefan Lopez who has 14 saves on the season and is 0-1 with a 0.48 ERA in 18 appearances and 18.2 innings pitched.
 
Offensively second baseman Brock Hebert tops the team and league with a .403 batting average as first baseman Jonathan Pace is hitting .378.