CONWAY, Ark. – Due to inclement weather, the Northwestern State baseball team will open its three-game, weekend series with Missouri State on Friday at 1 o'clock in familiar territory.

The Demons' (5-4) series against the Bears (5-1) was moved from Springfield, Mo. to Central Arkansas' Bear Field due to a possibility of winter weather conditions continuing into the weekend.  UCA is a Southland Conference foe. 

Northwestern State is coming off of a two-game series loss to Texas A&M in which the Aggies won 9-5 and 2-1.  Missouri State comes into the game after being apart of the Southern Mississippi Invitational in which it had wins over Alcorn State, USM, and Eastern Illinois. 

Last season, the Bears made it to the NCAA Regionals where they eventually fell to College World Series attendant Stony Brook. 

The projected starter Friday for the Demons is left-handed pitcher Joey Parrack (0-0, 3.86 ERA), and for the Bears it will be right-handed pitcher Nick Petree (1-0, 0.75 ERA).

Missouri State is led at the plate by freshman Tate Matheny who hits at a .333 clip with two doubles and two runs batted in.  Koby Peebles leads the team in runs batted in with six on the season. 

Both Will Watson and Nick Purdy have batting averages of .353, each with three extra-base hits.  Purdy is tied with Todd Wallace and Edwin Gomez for the team lead in RBI with six apiece. 

The Demons will open a two-game series at Tulane Tuesday before returning home for a Friday night game against Louisiana-Monroe on Mar. 8 in Brown-Stroud Field