SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Northwestern State softball team was extra innings away from opening Southland Conference play with a doubleheader sweep at Incarnate Word, but the Lady Demons split with the Cardinals on Saturday.

NSU shut out UIW 8-0 before falling 6-5 in eight innings on a walk-off single by Alex Alonzo.

The Lady Demons (16-6, 1-1 SLC) close the series at UIW (7-13, 1-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m.

NSU 8, UIW 0

Five Lady Demons recorded multiple hits in support of sophomore pitcher Micaela Bouvier's shutout as NSU took the first game.

Bouvier (9-2) limited UIW to four hits and three walks while striking out seven in her second shutout of the season.

The Santa Fe, Texas, native has won her last three starts and hasn't allowed an earned run in her last two starts.

UIW starter Sarah Leal (2-3) stranded three NSU runners in scoring position in the first three innings before the Lady Demons broke the game open with five runs in the next two innings.

Sophomore Kaytie Proctor (2-for-3, 2 RBIs) doubled in a run in the fourth inning before NSU collected four runs in the fifth inning.

Junior Micayla Sorosiak (2-for-5) doubled in Kellye Kincannon (2-for-3, 2 runs) to start the scoring in the fifth inning after Kincannon supplied a leadoff triple, her second of the season.

Junior Brittney Jones hammered a two-run home run to put NSU up 4-0 with her team-high fifth homer of the season. Jones (2-for-4, 3 RBIs) has hit three home runs in the last four games.

Proctor finished the scoring in the fifth inning by plating senior Natalie Landry, who went 2-for-4 and scored two runs.

Jones drove in her third run of the game by doubling in Kincannon in the sixth inning.

The Lady Demons added two seventh-inning runs with RBI fielder's choice by Kincannon and junior Jordan Rains.

UIW's Natali Duron and Marissa Ruiz each recorded two hits for all four of UIW's hits.

UIW 6, NSU 5 (8)

Incarnate Word's Alex Alonzo walked off the Lady Demons with a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning to thwart NSU's comeback attempt.

NSU junior pitcher Shelby Sells (5-4) recorded the first two outs in the eighth before Natali Duron and Victoria Bratcher recorded singles ahead of Alonzo's walk-off hit.

Those runs were the first two UIW earned runs of the day after the Cardinals scored five unearned runs in regulation thanks to two costly NSU errors.

After NSU led 3-0 and appeared to be cruising for a sweep, UIW plated three runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth inning.

The Lady Demons clawed back with two seventh-inning runs to extend the game. Kellye Kincannon (1-for-3) doubled and Jordan Rains (3-for-4, 3 RBIs) singled in runs to force extra innings, but reliever Sarah Leal got out of a bases-loaded jam to end the seventh inning.

NSU struck first with a Natalie Landry fourth-inning single to score Micayla Sorosiak.

Rains drove in her first two runs with a single, plating Kaytie Proctor and Sidney Salmans.

Proctor and Salmans each picked up two hits in the loss.

Sells struck out eight Cardinals but allowed 10 hits in the loss.