CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- The Northwestern State softball team bounced back once from a heartbreaking loss over the weekend, and the Lady Demons will be tasked with doing it again for this weekend series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
The Lady Demons lost to Louisiana Tech 6-5 in 10 innings Wednesday as a controversial play at the plate led to a walk-off defeat. After a 13-inning loss Saturday to Abilene Christian, NSU showed its grittiness by answering with a 5-0 win later that day.
 
The Lady Techsters laid down a 10^th-inning suicide squeeze bunt, and the runner charging home slid and collided with the home plate umpire before reaching home plate.
 
The umpire was spun around and knocked down just before NSU catcher Emma Hawthorne appeared to apply the tag before the runner reached the plate, but the umpire called the runner safe after about a five-second delay.
 
The extra-innings loss was NSU's fourth this season after falling to Abilene Christian, Lamar and No. 15 Baylor.
 
NSU (11-19-1, 1-5 Southland Conference) must turn its attention to the Islanders (5-18, 0-3 SLC) in a series that features a Friday doubleheader (1 p.m.) with a Saturday finale at noon.
 
TAMU-CC lost two of its three games at Southeastern this past weekend by one run after its opening series against Stephen F. Austin was rained out.
 
NSU was swept at Lamar and lost two of three to Abilene Christian, putting the Lady Demons in a tie for ninth in the 12-team league.
 
"We have to make sure we know what our approaches need to be and to be consistent with those approaches this weekend," said NSU coach Donald Pickett. "They'll have different types of pitchers than what we've faced this week, and they'll do different things to try to get us off balance.
 
"We've got to have focus in our approaches and execute them."
 
The Lady Demons haven't played the Islanders in a regular-season series since 2014 when NSU won two of three in Natchitoches.
 
NSU's last trip to Corpus Christi (2013) resulted in a series sweep, although the Islanders own the all-time series edge 14-11.
 
The Lady Demons have won six of the last seven, including a win in the 2015 SLC Tournament.
 
Freshman outfielder Julie Rawls continued to cement her spot in the lineup with two hits and a run scored against Louisiana Tech.
 
The Hallsville, Texas, native has 13 hits and 10 runs scored in her last 12 appearances (10 starts), including five hits in her last two games. Her .333 batting average leads the team.
 
She's one of 10 freshmen that have started a game this season, one of six with double-digit starts and one of two that currently is holding on to her spot.
 
Veteran infielders Jordan Rains (two runs scored against Louisiana Tech) and Hailee Rhodes have regained their starting spots from freshmen Adele Vincent (third base) and Toni Hebert (shortstop), respectively.
 
The NSU lineup will face an Islanders pitching staff (4.01 ERA) led by Liz Carter (4-10, 3.91 ERA).
 
The Islanders' offense hasn't helped Carter out much, scoring just 30 runs and batting .198 in 23 games.
 
NSU's pitching staff (4.11 ERA) has improved throughout the season as sophomores Mikayla Brown (6-9, 3.90 ERA) and Katelyn Boles (3-7, 3.59 ERA) have been the Lady Demons' primary arms.
 
Boles has allowed just five earned runs in her last four appearances (24 innings), including one earned run a 13-inning marathon against Abilene Christian on Saturday.
 
"The pitchers have given us a chance to win every game (recently)," Pickett said. "
"We've had one bad inning here or there, but we've needed to score some more runs and get more hits back to back.
 
"Hopefully our pitchers are getting more comfortable and confident in what they are doing. With the outings they've had, they've improved in attacking the strike zone and not giving as many free passes away."