LAFAYETTE – Sophomore outfielder Cort Brinson and the Northwestern State baseball team open a tough week that starts at Collegiate Baseball's No. 1 team Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday at 6:00 at "Tigue" Moore Field and ends with a three-game series at Sam Houston State.
 
Brinson, who returned from an injury seven games ago, leads NSU (12-10) in batting average (.370) and runs scored (7) since his return, and the Demons are 5-2 during that span. Louisiana-Lafayette, who was also picked No. 4 in Baseball America polls, holds a 22-2 record, and 12-2 record at home.
 
The two teams met earlier in the this season on Feb. 19, and the Ragin' Cajuns jumped out to a 4-0 lead early before NSU battled back with a three-run inning.  Louisiana-Lafayette added another run in the eighth inning on a home run to push the score final, 5-3.
 
Right-hander Josh Oller (0-0, 5.41 earned run average) will get the first start of his career as a Demon.  He has appeared in five games and pitched 6.2 innings.  The Cajuns expect to start left-hander Ryan Wilson (2-0, 2.30) who has four starts and five appearances.
 
Chase Daughdrill leads NSU with a .333 batting average and 19 runs batted in.  He is four RBIs shy of tying last year's leader, and he has reached base in every game this season.   Edwin Gomez (.325) and Caleb Dugas (.322) are also hitting over .300 this season.
 
Seth Harrison leads the Cajuns with a .359 hitting average.  Tyler Girouard (.340), Caleb Adams (.338), Jace Conrad (.322) and Blake Trahan (.302) are all hitting over .300 this season. Conrad has a team high 26 RBIs, and Ryan Leonards and Harrison lead with 21 runs.
 
The Cajuns have won 12 games in a row, and the Demons come in victors in five of their last six games.
 
The Demons will travel to Sam Houston State for a three-game set that starts at 6:30 on Friday.  The second game is a 4:00 on Saturday and the final contest is a 1 o'clock on Sunday. 
 
All four games of teh week will be broadcast on teh flagship station of the Demon Sports Network, 100.7 KZBL-FM, and steamed free at NSUDemons.com online.