NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Another weekend, another weather change for the Northwestern State baseball team.
 
Just don't expect the Demons, who face Stephen F. Austin in a 1 p.m. Southland Conference series-opening doubleheader Friday at Jaycees Field, to worry much about it.
 
Northwestern State (11-9, 5-1) has not played a three-day weekend series since the opening weekend of the season (Feb. 13-15). In each of the next four weekends, weather issues forced the Demons to play a doubleheader.
 
With a 90-percent chance of rain in the forecast for Nacogdoches on Saturday, third-year head coach Lane Burroughs and his SFA counterpart, Johnny Cardenas, made the decision to move Saturday's game to Friday and create Northwestern State's sixth doubleheader of the season.
 
"I think it's the culture of our program," said Burroughs, whose team has swept its last three doubleheaders. "We preach toughness and dominating the elements. From Day 1, when we got here, we talked about that. If we play one, if we play two, if we play three, we don't blink. We let the other people talk about that. You see that in our program. We have some junior college kids who are used to playing doubleheaders, and it doesn't faze them."
 
As he has all season, sophomore right-hander Adam Oller (3-1, 1.46) will take the ball to start Game 1 of the series. Oller has gone at least eight innings in each of his last three starts, including a shutout of Sam Houston State in his last outing.
 
Excluding the season opener at Troy, Oller has pitched into the seventh inning in every start this season.
 
"He's special," Burroughs said. "He's what a Friday night guy should be. He works hard at his craft. His makeup's off the charts. When he gets in trouble, he finds a way to get out of it. That's what aces do."
 
Oller's last start ended with a 1-0 Demons victory in the opening game of a doubleheader against Sam Houston State.
 
After that taut pitcher's duel, the Demons found their collective power stroke, hitting four home runs in the third inning of a 10-8 win against the Bearkats. Northwestern State added two more home runs in the Sunday series finale and now has 10 home runs on the year.

A season ago, NSU hit 16 home runs in 59 games.
 
"We didn't get out of the gates very well offensively this year," Burroughs said. "We barreled up some balls that didn't find holes. We have a mantra in our program, if you hit the ball hard, you'll win. It wasn't showing up on the scoreboard.
 
"Our guys kept working hard, and it's starting to pay off. We're seeing the fruits of our labor. We had the big inning where we hit four in one inning, which I never saw before. That's encouraging as we head into the second half of the season."
 
While the Demons swung the bat with power last weekend, Stephen F. Austin (6-16, 1-5) is built differently offensively.
 
"They run," Burroughs said. "They're going to try to steal a lot of bases. When you play Stephen F., they're going to come after you with everything they've got."
 
SFA has hit eight home runs in 22 games, but the Lumberjacks have stolen 33 bases in 43 attempts.
 
In addition to pitchers keeping runners close, the Demons' senior catching duo of C.J. Webster and Garrett Logan will be called up on to try to slow SFA.
 
"Garrett's got a great arm, one of the best catcher's arms I've ever coached," Burroughs said. "We don't call it controlling the running game. We call it attacking the running game, and our pitchers do a great job of it. They hold the baseball, multiple picks. Coach (Bobby) Barbier has done a great job of calling pitchouts when we think they're going to run. We've been successful doing that."
 
After this weekend, the Demons return home to start a five-game homestand with a pair of midweek games against Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday and Wednesday.
 Friday Game 1: NSU RHP Adam Oller (3-1, 1.46) vs. SFA RHP Cameron Gann (2-2, 2.76)
Friday Game 2: NSU RHP Josh Oller (4-0, 4.50) vs. SFA LHP Dillon Mangham (1-3, 5.20)
Sunday: NSU RHP Jeffrey Stovall (2-2, 4.30) vs. SFA RHP Jarred Greene (1-3, 4.91)