CORVALLIS, Oregon – Bobby Barbier's Bistro Battlers didn't have one more comeback left in them.

Their entire season was one GIANT comeback, constructed brick-by-brick of uncommon rallies along with a share of gritty battles that didn't finish just right.

It ended in harsh fashion Sunday afternoon in the closest four-run loss you can absorb. After a tie-breaking, bottom of the eighth home run by Peyton Davis vaulted the Northwestern State baseball team just three outs away from a monumental NCAA Corvallis Regional upset of LSU, the Demons couldn't record those last two outs in time.

The one-run edge evaporated as LSU chipped away until cracking it open, rapping three straight one-out hits in a five-run top of the ninth. A few minutes later, the Tigers closed out an improbable 9-5 victory, getting a stay of execution which seems pretty shaky, requiring a pitching-depleted LSU squad to top the powerful home team, Oregon State, not once, but twice, to continue their season.

NSU's run – and by any standard, it was a seriously impressive stretch run – was halted. In his second year as head coach at his alma mater, Barbier guided an 18-game turnaround, best in school history, with a squad brimming with 17 newcomers. The Demons won 16 of 20 in a charge earning their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 13 seasons, then wound up just one half-inning away from reaching a NCAA Regional championship round for the first time.

Putting it in context: a team predicted for 11th place in the 13-team Southland Conference soared to third at the close of the regular season, then swept through the Southland Tournament with four straight late-inning wins to punch its ticket for what turned out to be the longest (1,858 miles one way from home to Corvallis) road trip in program history.

There were early signs of things to come, in a pair of fiercely fought February wins in extra innings, 12 to top visiting Penn at the Bistro (a.k.a. Brown-Stroud Field), followed by a back-and-forth 10-inning triumph at Louisiana Tech. But as late as April 22, the Demons hadn't found their groove, and were sitting at just the .500 mark (9-9) in Southland play, 21-18 overall after a series loss at McNeese.

There weren't many Ls after. A therapeutic mid-week visit from Mississippi Valley produced freakish numbers, wins of 21-0 and 34-0, and more significantly gave NSU some subtle swagger that contributed to the five-week-long surge that carried the Demons among the nation's elite teams. As Sunday dawned, only 48 were still playing, and by the time LSU's miracle rally began, only 42 remained.

Northwestern won in other ways. In the waning moments of Sunday's game, an elderly game staff member who has encountered visiting teams at Oregon State's Goss Stadium for decades shared his impression of Barbier's club.

"In all the years I've been doing this, I've never dealt with a nicer group of young men than your boys," he said. "You can be proud of the way they've conducted themselves here."

That was part of the reason that a couple hundred people, most but definitely not all NSU supporters from back home, gave the Demons a minutes-long ovation after postgame handshakes ended. The prolonged applause began after the team's huddle and postgame prayer, as fans up and down the third-base line behind NSU's dugout stood, clapping and cheering, with the continuity that creates an encore at a concert.

Keeping it going was the theme of Barbier's brief remarks to his team.

"Let's be sure this isn't the end, guys. We can take this momentum and build from it," he said. "What you underclassmen do going forward will decide if we make the most of our opportunity."

Departing are four seniors: center fielder Kwan Adkins, pitcher Dan Hlad, catcher Kelsey Richard, and Southland regular-season and tournament MVP David Fry, an All-America selection. Each was impactful, particularly Adkins and Fry, who will doubtlessly get phone calls early this week as Major League Baseball conducts its annual June draft.

They leave a legacy, one that nobody who watched the Demons this weekend could possibly deny.

"It's been an amazing experience," said Fry. "We've gotten the Demons back on top."