SAN ANTONIO – One night after a near no-hitter, senior pitcher Micaela Bouvier threw five-and-two-thirds scoreless relief innings Saturday to guide Northwestern State to a 10-3 win at Incarnate Word.
Bouvier (12-5) recorded both of NSU's win this weekend to help the Lady Demons (24-12, 11-4 Southland Conference) to its second road series win in SLC play this season.
Bouvier danced around five hits and four walks but didn't allow a run Saturday, increasing her total of scoreless innings this weekend to 12 2/3 scoreless innings to lower her season ERA to 2.18.
"Once we got out of the (second) inning, Bouvier came in and slammed the door shut today just like she slammed the door shut last night," said NSU coach Donald Pickett. "We needed it in the circle after losing the first game, and Bouvier delivered for us.
"Our seniors did it all weekend with Bouvier and Sidney Salmans. We had so many distractions, but we found a way to win this series on the road."
Bouvier entered the game in the second inning with score tied 1-1 and runners on second and third base. UIW's Mackenzie Stark doubled in two runs credited to starter Mikayla Brown to put UIW up 3-1.
But the Lady Demons' offense roared to life behind a career-high four hits from fellow senior Sidney Salmans.
Salmans went 4-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored. Her RBI single in the fourth inning tied the game 3-3 when she drove in freshman Baleigh Glover (two runs scored).
"I was really just trying to stau confident, put the ball in play and make them work," Salmans said. "It feels awesome to get the series win even when we didn't come out how we wanted to (Game 1 loss).
"Coming back and fighting through the last two games no matter what was going on was big for us. Everyone is just staying confident, and it just builds more confidence in the team when we can do that together."
Salmans has hits in 11 of her last 13 games, including seven multi-hit efforts. She has 20 hits in her last 13 games to raise her average from .203 to .314.
Sophomore Emma Hawthorne hit a solo home run, her third of the season, to cut into UIW's lead 3-2 earlier in the inning.
The Lady Demons piled up 12 hits and scored in five different innings.
After scoring one fifth-inning run on one of four UIW errors, NSU dumped three runs each in the sixth and seventh innings.
Sophomore Kaitlyn St. Clair was the catalyst of NSU's fifth-inning run to take a 4-3 edge. St. Clair doubled and then scored on a UIW error. St. Clair went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. In just two starts, the Cypress, Texas, native produced five hits, seven RBIs and four runs scored.
St. Clair scored NSU's first run in the second inning on an Adele Vincent single for a 1-0 edge. St. Clair made two starts in left field after Julie Rawls collided with an unpadded outfield wall, bruising her ribs. Rawls was in the original starting lineup Saturday before being a late scratch with her injury.
For Vincent, also a sophomore, she has all five of her RBIs this season in the last six games.
NSU's offensive outburst came late with three runs each in the final two innings to erase any doubt.
In the sixth inning, NSU received RBIs from Madelyn Matt, St. Clair and Hayley Barbazon.
In the seventh inning, Elise Vincent scored on a UIW error before St. Clair drove in two runs with a single.
The Lady Demons have won both of their SLC road series 2-1 at Abilene Christian and UIW after losing the first game.
NSU won this series despite missing its leading hitter Cayla Jones all three games and key power hitter Julie Rawls for more than two games.
"I'm proud of the way we fought back and responded the right way," Pickett said. "Hopefully we can learn from some of the things we're doing wrong early in the series, but this team fights, and that's important."
With the series win, NSU kept pace with Nicholls (11-4 SLC), which won two at home against Abilene Christian.
Third-place Central Arkansas (9-5 SLC) split on the road at Stephen F. Austin with the finale being played Sunday.
