NATCHITOCHES -- A mixture of new and old will take the field Friday as the Northwestern State softball season starts with a double-header to begin the five-game ULM Mardi Gras Classic.
 
Eight starters and 12 letter winners return from NSU's fourth straight winning season (27-25) as the Lady Demons face SIU-Edwardsville at 11 a.m. and Grambling and 1 p.m. NSU continues Saturday with Prairie View A&M at 9 a.m. and a nonconference game against Sam Houston State at 11 a.m. before finishing the tournament Sunday with ULM at noon.
 
Six of those starters played key roles in 2015 when NSU won the Southland Conference regular season title, and coach Donald Pickett said their experience will be invaluable as the Lady Demons will attempt to work in 10 freshmen this weekend.
 
"It's really important to gain confidence and get everybody some innings," Pickett said. "This is a good crop of teams we're playing this weekend, and we'll need to be on our game to get the results we want.
 
"We want to get some of these freshmen in the game before we get into tougher environments. But we have a lot of returners off our 2015 (SLC regular season champion) team, and we're really excited about what we can do and want to see where we're at."
 
Redshirt sophomore pitcher Mikayla Brown is both old and new. After winning the 2015 SLC Pitcher of the Year, Brown tore her ACL in the second game of 2016 and missed the rest of the season.

"I'm not 100 percent yet, but I'm heading that way," said Brown, who will start against SIU Edwardsville on Friday. "The rehab has been hard, but it's definitely worth it.

"It was really tough (last year). Nobody wants to be sitting there watching, especially the way last year went. I'm glad I'm back now."
 
The Deville native has a career 15-4 record with a 1.45 ERA in 31 appearances (16 starts).
 
Brown and the pitching staff should have plenty of offense behind them led by a trio of seniors in Brittney Jones, Kellye Kincannon and Micayla Sorosiak.
 
Jones and Kincannon have a chance to be the top two NSU career performers in multiple statistics, while Sorosiak could join the crew in NSU's top-five home run list.
 
Kincannon said the team doesn't feel pressure to return to their championship ways after missing the SLC Tournament this past season.

"I don't think there's any pressure," said Kincannon, who is already NSU's career leader in batting average and slugging percentage with home runs and RBIs in easy grasp. "I think other teams are expecting us to die down and not come back strong.
 
"We're ready to come out hot and come out strong. We're ready to show our capability and get this thing started."
 
SIUE has successfully transitioned to the Division I ranks after winning a Division II national championship in 2007. The Cougars were 28-26 last year, but they won 43 games in 2015 and won Ohio Valley Conference titles in 2014 and 2015.
 
Grambling and Prairie View A&M won a combined 15 games this past season.
 
Sam Houston qualified for the SLC Tournament after a 13-14 league mark, but the Lady Demons took two of three in Huntsville, Texas, this past season. Jones had a particularly strong series, collecting six RBIs on two home runs including a grand slam.
 
NSU split a two-game series with ULM, losing 5-4 in Monroe before winning 6-2 at home.
 
ULM returns speedster Rochelle Roberts, who was named to the D1SoftballNews.com Player of the Year Watchlist (50 players) after hitting .483 with 48 runs scored and 33 steals this past season.