CONWAY, Ark. – Freshman of the year Adam Oller will take the mound in game one of the Southland Conference Tournament when the fourth-seeded Northwestern State baseball team faces fifth-seeded Southeastern Louisiana Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock at Bear Stadium.
 
NSU (31-24, 19-11 Southland Conference) and Southeastern Louisiana (33-23, 18-12) faced each other to end the regular season, and the Lions won the series 2-1 after they downed the Demons on Saturday and Sunday.
 
"A couple of our goals this season were to get to 30 wins and get in the conference tournament because it has been a while, and we accomplished both of those," said Demon head coach Lane Burroughs. "I told our team it's a brand new season, and you only have to be better than the team you are playing for the next four days."
 
With a win on Wednesday, the Demons would play the winner of Sam Houston State, the one seed, and Lamar, the eight seed, in game two. With a loss NSU, would play the loser of that game.
 
"I have always believed it's not who you play, but when you play them.  It is seen in every sport, the team that gets rolling and gets hot that keeps playing," said the second-year skipper.
 
Adam Oller (6-1, 2.18 earned run average) was named the league's freshman of the year and made all-conference, along with Chase Daughdrill and Caleb Dugas, on Monday.  All three were pieces of the historical turnaround Northwestern State has achieved.  Its 14-game turnaround in league play is the largest in Southland Conference history.
 
"We are very proud of our improvement.  I look back and see a lot of games that we were in and didn't win, but there were a few games we stole from other teams," said Burroughs. "At the end of the day when the dust settles, it has been a good year.  We are very, very close to having a great year."
 
Northwestern State has not made it to the league tournament since the 2010 season, and has not won a game since 2006.
 
"One of our goals is to be still be playing this time of year, and it is all still in front of us," said Burroughs. "I didn't anticipate the 14-game turnaround, but we'll reflect on that with good memories.  Now we just want to continue and make a good season a great one."
 
Oller, who took over as NSU's "Friday night" pitcher in the second league series of the season, was on hill in NSU's win over Southeastern Louisiana.  He worked six innings and gave up two runs on five hits and two walks.
 
Cameron Brewer shut the door in that game and took the save on three scoreless innings.
 
Daughdrill was NSU's top hitter in the series at Southeastern with six hits in 11 at-bats.  He had three runs scored and one run batted in.  Cort Brinson had five hits in 11 at-bats, including three doubles.
 
For the season, Daughdrill (.319) and Brinson (.301) have the top batting averages on the team.   Daughdrill has a team-high 38 RBIs and is second behind Dugas (39) in runs scored with 36.
 
The Lions will start Andro Cutura (9-2, 1.71) in Wednesday's game.  He has 13 starts on the season, and has tossed 89.2 innings. 
 
Honorable mention vote Fisher Jameson is the top hitter for Southeastern Louisiana with a .395 batting average, and newcomer of the year Andrew Godbold follows with a .353 average.  He has a league high 50 RBI along with eight home runs.  He hit a homer in game two that sparked the Lion offense in game two.
 
Patrick Netherton will have the call on 100. KZBL-FM in Natchitoches, and it will be live streamed at NSUDemons.com.  The Southland Conference will carry a live video stream on the Southland.org.