NATCHITOCHES -- With four Southland Conference series remaining, Northwestern State is part of potential make-or-break series in the race for a regular season title.
 
Six of the top seven teams in the league standings play each other, highlighted by NSU (24-12, 11-4 SLC) hosting Southeastern (23-16, 9-6) in a three-game contest.
 
The series is scheduled to begin Friday at 5 p.m. with a Saturday doubleheader at noon at Lady Demon Diamond.
 
NSU is tied with Nicholls (26-11, 11-4 SLC) at the top, but the Colonels travel to defending champion and third-place McNeese (28-14, 10-5 SLC).
 
The other top matchup pits fourth-place Central Arkansas (20-18, 9-6 SLC) hosting Lamar (23-19, 8-7 SLC). The Bears are tied with Southeastern and Stephen F. Austin in fourth.
 
The Lady Demons stayed atop the standings this past weekend by taking two of three on the road at a feisty Incarnate Word.
 
NSU did so despite missing leading hitter Cayla Jones (.430 batting average) for the entire series and second-leading hitter Julie Rawls (.325) for two games.
 
"I am pleased that we've had a team offense in that we haven't had to rely on one or two people, and we're built that way," said NSU coach Donald Pickett. "We have some speed, we have kids that can hit for power and we have some athletic kids that can a little of both.
 
"The offense is coming from different places, but I still think we can work on our consistency and our approach. We are scoring a lot of runs, but there are things we can do to improve, and we want to put it together this month."
 
The Lady Demons lead the league in batting average (.296) and are second in a variety of categories such as home runs (23) and slugging percentage (.444).
 
NSU's two seniors Micaela Bouvier and Sidney Salmans loomed large in the series win.
 
Bouvier pitched 12 2/3 scoreless innings in two wins, including taking her Game 2 start into the seventh inning with a no-hitter. A spinning infield blooper broke up the no-hit bid, but Bouvier finished with a one-hit shutout, her fourth of the season.
 
Bouvier (12-5) is 7-3 with a 2.03 ERA in conference play.
 
Salmans' bat continued to simmer this past week as she posted 10 hits in four games. In her last 13 games, she's recorded 24 hits and batted .462 in that stretch to raise her season average more than 100 points to .314.
 
The Woodlands, Texas, native set a career-high with four hits in the UIW finale win.
 
Southeastern counters with an aggressive offensive attack that leads the nation with 122 steals.
 
Four Lady Lions rank in the SLC's top 10 in steals while power hitter Mahalia Gibson (nine home runs, 37 RBIs) holds down the middle of the lineup.
 
"They like to run and put pressure on you on the base paths, but they have some kids who can hit for power," Pickett said. "They are doing really well this year, and they are getting a lot stronger each year with Coach Fremin down there.
 
"We'll need good pitching and timely hitting to have a chance to win the series, and it's going to be a tough one. We need to get this at home, but it'll challenge us in a lot of different ways than other teams we've played."
 
NSU has played two other teams in the nation's top 10 in steals. McNeese (fourth) and Louisiana Tech (eighth) went 7-for-9 in stolen bases combined in four games, not including a pickoff.
 
Catcher Emma Hawthorne caught two runners stealing and picked off another.
 
The Lady Demons have owned the Lady Lions of late, winning the last four series. NSU won two of three in Hammond this past season -- thanks in part to a career-high four RBIs from Hayley Barbazon in a 9-8 win.
 
That series win broke the tie for the final spot in the Southland Conference Tournament as the Lady Demons returned to the postseason in 2017.
 
But Southeastern is also in the running for a conference title this year, winning three of their five series this year including a series win against Nicholls.
 
NSU leads the overall series 79-34.
 
The Lady Demons will be honoring some of their own during an alumni reunion weekend celebrating the 1998 conference titles and the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
About 30 former players are expected to attend, which includes a Friday night barbeque dinner in Prather Coliseum and a crawfish boil Saturday.
 
The alumni events are scheduled to occur regardless of weather.