Demon Baseball | 3/5/2018 2:30:00 PM

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The reunion tour has one final stop for the Northwestern State baseball team.
 
When the Demons open a two-game, midweek series at No. 9 Texas A&M at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, it marks the third of three straight Northwestern State opponents whose head coach has deep NSU ties.
 
Aggies head coach Rob Childress is a former Demons pitching coach, like Little Rock head coach Chris Curry, whose team dropped two of three to the Demons (7-4) this past weekend. Northwestern State opened the reunion run with a 6-4, 10-inning victory against Louisiana Tech on Feb. 28.
 
In addition to the series opener, the Demons and Aggies (11-1) will play at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Both games will be available through SEC Network Plus and can be heard on 100.7 FM KZBL in Natchitoches.
 
Through four games of a season-long, nine-game road trip, the Demons are 3-1 having won the first three games of the trip.
 
"We probably played our worst game – no doubt our worst game – in our first road game (an 11-6 loss at ULM on Feb. 20)," second-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "We challenged them to not let the circumstances of where you are dictate the decisions we make and how we're going to prepare and play the game. They responded to that. They did a really good job of playing clean baseball."
 
Never was Northwestern State's fielding prowess shown more than in Saturday's 7-3, 13-inning win at Little Rock in which the Demons tied the school record by turning five double plays. Adding a double play in Sunday's series finale lifted the Demons' total to 19 twin killings, a number that leads the nation entering Tuesday's game.
 
Northwestern State will need to continue to play solid defense against an Aggies team that won its first nine games of the season before falling to Louisiana Tech in the opener of the Frisco College Classic on Friday.
 
The Aggies, one of two Southeastern Conference opponents on the Demons' schedule this season along with LSU, lead the SEC in batting average (.339) and triples (8). Texas A&M averages 7.8 runs per game.
 
"There is no doubt it will be a tremendous test for us," Barbier said. "They have a great team. Of course, we know Rob really well. They pitch it really well. They hit well up and down the lineup. Again, it's about our guys building on what they learned about themselves over the weekend. The team changes, but it doesn't matter. When conference play starts, that doesn't matter.
 
"It's about competing, really competing and enjoying the competition. I told them a story before the game the other day about a lion who will leave an animal he already killed to go after another one, even though he has the food right there because he enjoys the hunt. He enjoys competing. That's something it takes guys time to learn, but I think this team is starting to learn that."
 
Kwan Adkins continues to pace the Demons offense in a breakout senior season.
 
Adkins went 8-for-13 with the first two three-hit games of his career in the series at Little Rock. Adkins' .487 batting average is 12^th nationally and his 19 hits in the first 11 games of the season are one more than he had in the 2017 season.
 
Adkins' hot start came after playing football for the Demons in the fall, earning an opening-day start at wide receiver.
 
"That's exactly what it was, a break," Barbier said. "We want kids to play all year long, and sometimes they need that break. He had a lot of success in football. He hadn't played in four years, and I go to the game, and he's out there running routes. It shows you the athlete he is. To stick with it and come back and buy in, to get in the cage on his own when he had football, shows a lot about him, especially after not having it go his way. Now he's being rewarded."