Demon Baseball | 5/22/2018 9:59:00 AM
SUGAR LAND, Texas – All season, the Northwestern State baseball team has been an agent of change, adopting the motto "Change It" early and enacting it throughout.
The results were clear – a 13-win increase overall, eight more Southland Conference wins than in 2017 and a return to the Southland Conference Tournament, which begins Wednesday.
"This is part of what we envisioned when we started the 'Change It' mentality," said second-year head coach
Bobby Barbier, who was named the Southland Conference Clay Gould Coach of the Year on Monday. "We had to learn from last year. That happened for a reason – for us to learn from it. I'm so proud of the guys and how they responded in their work. Everyone sees the games, but they don't see the fall and early spring. The guys came back ready to play. Those things get overlooked, but they're the reason the results are what they are."
Despite a year between appearances, there will be a feeling of déjà vu for the third-seeded Demons (33-22), who open tournament play at 9 a.m. Wednesday against sixth-seeded McNeese (25-31). The game can be seen on ESPN Plus and can be heard on 100.7 FM KZBL in Natchitoches and through streaming audio on www.NSUDemons.com.
The winner of the game faces the winner of No. 2 seed Southeastern Louisiana and seventh-seeded Nicholls while the losers of those two games meet in a 9 a.m. elimination game Thursday.
To get tickets to The Southland Conference Tournament or see the full bracket
click here.
It is the same matchup the Demons encountered in the 2016 tournament opener, right down to having seen the right-handed Cowboys starter.
Instead of Trent Fontenot, it will be a rematch with Grant Anderson (4-6, 3.96), who limited the Demons to one run in eight-plus innings of McNeese's 2-1, 13-inning win
"He's pitched great against us over the past few years," Barbier said. "He's a really talented arm, a lower-slot guy. Hopefully, because we've seen him, that's going to give us a little bit of an advantage. At the same time, they've seen our guy."
That guy for the Demons is left-hander
Ridge Heisler (6-2, 3.18), who was named third-team All-Southland Conference.
Heisler, who won his final two starts of the season, pitched well in that series opener at McNeese, scattering six hits in eight innings of one-run ball.
Despite the Demons' struggles against Anderson and his brother, Aidan, who struck out 10 in five innings of that 2-1 win, Northwestern State feels confident entering the tournament.
Northwestern State won its final four conference series of the season, going 9-3 in a stretch that began after dropping two of three games at McNeese from April 20-22.
"Those were close games, so they weren't demoralizing losses," senior right-hander Danny Hlad said. "It's tough to lose that series, but we knew we played good games. We knew after that it was go time for us."
The Demons followed a 4-3 April 22 loss at McNeese by ripping off 10 wins in their next 12 games. NSU finished the regular season with 12 wins in its final 16 games.
"It just started coming together," Southland Conference Player of the Year
David Fry said. "The pitching was good all year, and the bats came around and the bullpen came alive at the end. We're getting hot at the right time."
Fry, Adkins and catcher
Kelsey Richard were part of the 2015 and 2016 teams that played in the first two tournaments at Constellation Field. The Demons went 1-4 in those two appearances despite being seeded second in 2015 and third in 2016.
That trio, along with right-handers
Nathan Jones and
Austin Reich, can draw on the universal theme of unfinished business as well as a mantra that has served the Demons well in 2018.
"'Change It' has been our motto, so let's change it and win the first game, get off to a good start," said Adkins, a third-team All-SLC selection. "Let's get the bats hot and keep the gloves clean and try to win this tournament."
