Box Score NATCHITOCHES – With Bret Underwood on second base and Caleb Dugas on first, Southern pitcher Sam May put back-to-back pitches in the dirt against C.J. Webster in the 11^th inning that allowed Underwood to score the winning run in a 4-3 victory for the Northwestern State baseball team on Friday night at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
Due to the threat of weather in the area on Sunday, Saturday will feature a double-header that will begin at 1:00.  There will be no game on Sunday.
 
Northwestern State evened its record at 4-4 and Southern fell to 2-3 overall.
 
With two outs in the 11^th inning, Underwood reached on a first-pitch single to right field and stole second when Dugas had a 0-1 count in the next at-bat.  SU elected to intentionally walk Dugas which brought Webster to the plate.  The next two pitches were in the dirt and NSU took the win in a back-and-forth game.
 
"The guys never quit fighting," said second-year head coach Lane Burroughs. "They kept battling.  They could have packed it in and said we should be winning this, but they fought and it was a great win."
 
Southern jumped on the board in the first inning, and the Demons answered on back-to-back RBI-singles from Dugas and Webster in the third inning.
 
With one out, Joel Atkinson singled up the middle on a 2-1 count.  After Atkinson stole second base two batters later, Dugas punched one back up the middle to score Atkinson from second.  Dugas took advantage of a wild pitch at grabbed second base right before Webster singled down the left field line to advance Dugas home.
 
The Jags scored two of their own in the fifth inning to go ahead 3-2 before Dugas tied it in the seventh inning on a double to center field to score Underwood.  Underwood reached on a two-out double to left field.
 
"It was one of those games that things were kind of going against us," said Burroughs.  "We always talk about in every game we're going to have to weather the storm at some point.  Early on we go ourselves ran out of an inning. Then, we come back and put some runs on the board. We weathered that storm."
 
In the second inning, one frame before the two-run inning, had back-to-back singles, but nothing came of it because both runners were gunned down trying to steal second.
 
"I thought early we were a little aggressive on the base paths, but we teach that," said Burroughs. "I'm not going to fault the guys for being aggressive."
 
The Demons thought they had the game in-hand in the eighth inning when Matt Alford hit a dibbler to second base and was called out on a bang-bang play.   Had he reached, Chase Daughdrill would have scored after he was walked and took third base on a single to left field by Nathan Lyons.
 
"We felt like we had the game with a play at first base, but the umpire didn't see it that way," said Burroughs. "That was another storm we had to weather.
 
"(The Demons) just keep fighting.  The energy was great tonight, and we got to the point to where we need the win and the guys gutted it out. "
 
Steven Spann (2-1) grabbed the victory on the mound on NSU with two innings pitched, one hit, and three strikeouts.  Hunter Duvic got the start and worked five innings with three runs allowed. Andrew Adams and Joey Parrack tossed a couple of innings apiece.  Adams gave up two hits and struck out two. Parrack gave up one hit with two walks and two strikeouts.
 
The top of NSU's lineup (Atkinson, Underwood, Dugas, Wesbter, and Regan Kaufman) finished the game 9-of-17 at the plate.  All but one Demon in the starting lineup had at least one hit.
 
"One through five had a great day at the plate, not only with hits but with great at-bats," said Burroughs.  "C.J. (Webster) was 1-for-5 but he had a big RBI.  Dugas and Webster went back-to-back with two-out RBIs."
 
NSU had 15 hits in the game, six more than Southern did.  Lance Jones, the Jags' leadoff hitter, was 2-for-3 on the day with two runs scored.  Jose DeLaTorre had three hits in four at-bats.  Marcus Tomlin, D.J. Wallace, Gavin Webster, and Bud Morton each had one hit.
 
The loss was credited to Sam May (0-1) who only pitched two-thirds of an inning.  Starter Santos Salvidar lasted four innings and gave up hits that led to two runs.