NATCHITOCHES – With two Southland Conference baseball series remaining in the season, Northwestern State is still looking to lock down a spot in the league postseason tournament May 23-26.
 
The Demons (17-28, 12-15 SLC) are currently in a tie for seventh place with Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and will visit Nicholls State (23-24, 10-16) for a three game series beginning at 6:30 on Friday.  The series will continue with a 2 o'clock start on Saturday and end up with Sunday's finale at 1.
 
Friday and Saturday's games will be carried live on the Demon Sports Network.  Live stats can also be followed on nsudemons.com.
 
The Colonels trail NSU by two games in the standings and are on the outside looking in for a spot in the eight-team tourney.
 
The Demons, who are just 5-17 away from Brown-Stroud Field this season, including a 3-9 record in conference games, will be looking to snap a losing skid of five straight series.  NSU won its first four Southland series of the season and stormed out to a 9-3 league record but has gone just 3-12 since.
 
NSU will change things up with its starting pitching rotation this weekend but will stick with junior LHP Mason Melotakis (3-4, 3.88 ERA) in Friday's opener.  Senior lefty Colin Bear (3-7, 4.96) will move into the Saturday role while head coach J.P. Davis will wait on a decision on Sunday's starter.
 
Also on the staff, senior flame thrower Joe Scanio is one appearance away from placing himself as one of the record holders for appearances in a single-season.  Scanio has seen action in 27 games and the school record is 28 held by Blake Jones (2005) and Skip Madden (1991).
 
Offensively, the Demons ignited for a .350 team average in last weekend's series at Central Arkansas and the hope is that surge will continue this weekend.
 
Center fielder Drew Helenihi tops the team with a .320 batting average and is followed by Will Watson's .314 mark.  The duo have combined to steal 36 bases – 18 each.
 
The Colonels possess the league's third-ranked offense with a team batting average of .277.  They lead the league with 93 stolen basesand is fourth with 19 home runs hit.
 
Jeremy Hill leads the squad and ranks third in the Southland with a .377 batting average while Philip Lyons is hitting .348 which ranks him sixth in the league.
 
On the mound, Nicholls will go with the rotation of Seth Webster (5-5, 5.24), Pat Shreve (4-5, 3.82) and Mike Suk (6-1, 5.20).  Both Webster and Hill were preseason all-conference selections.
 
Following the series, the Demons will return home to close out the regular season May 17-19 against Texas State.