DENTON, Texas -- Freshman Riley Cantrell stood in the on-deck circle in the seventh inning of Friday's season opener against Boise State.

With two outs, junior Kaitlyn St. Clair delivered a walk-off RBI single to top a Boise State team that was receiving votes in national polls, setting off pandemonium as the Lady Demons rush the field.

That's the welcome that Cantrell and 11 newcomers had to Division I softball, and those newcomers played a large role in NSU going 2-2 in a difficult field at the Texas Classic.

Now Cantrell and the newbies are ready for their second dose of softball as NSU (2-2) is scheduled to play four games in the North Texas Mean Green Classic starting Friday.

UNT's Lovelace Stadium is also familiar to Cantrell and other East Texas natives.

"It was super exciting to be a part of that and to experience that with a team that has such great chemistry," said Cantrell, who led the team with four RBIs on the weekend, including an RBI triple against No. 16 Texas. "(The walk-off) was indescribable, like one of those things you see on TV.

"(Against Texas), honestly I was running just as I could to get to third base against a really good Texas team. That was a cool experience against a team that I used to go and watch play all the time. I''ve been to a few games at UNT as well, so I'm super excited about going back there."

Cantrell and six other Dallas-area natives have a chance to make new memories in their backyard.

NSU heads to Denton, Texas, to face Creighton and Seton Hall consecutively Friday starting at 1:30 p.m. before seeing the Pirates again Saturday at 11 a.m. and finishing the event against host North Texas on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

Freshman pitcher Bronte Rhoden will also try to build on her opening weekend in which she pitched 11 1/3 scoreless relief innings and two wins before Boston College scored three runs at the end of a large NSU victory.

The Plano, Texas, native will have family and friends in attendance.

"The first weekend was a really good experience, and I have to give it up to my infield and outfield for saving my butt on a couple of plays," Rhoden said. "It's a little nerve racking to go into games like that (relief appearances with runners on), but when you take the right approach and your teammates have your back, you can do anything.

"This weekend will be really cool with my sister coming down, my parents making the short drive and hopefully my high school coaches coming too."

Cantrell and Rhoden are joined by fellow East Texans in senior Kaylee Isenburg (Lone Oak), junior Emma Hawthorne (Hallsville) and freshmen Maggie Black (Grapevine), Sierra Stone (Garland) and Alexis Perry (Wylie).

Five of those players start or have seen significant playing time.

The competition won't let up much this weekend as host North Texas (4-1) knocked off No. 24 Texas A&M in the opening weekend.

Creighton (1-4) split its only two meetings with NSU by one run, the last coming in 2014 (NSU 2-1 win). Seton Hall (2-3) is attempting to build on positives from its opening weekend.

"We'll be playing good teams in a competitive field," said NSU coach Donald Pickett. "UNT had a great weekend this past weekend, but we're also going to be focused on what we're doing and learning from our mistakes.

"I thought we played pretty well at the Texas Classic considering the competition and weather, and I'm excited about what we've going. We had a chance to win three of the four games that weekend, and we'll continue to build."

Pickett particularly liked the performance of its pitching staff, which will add senior Mikayla Brown back into the mix.

The Lady Demons walked just five batters in the first four games and limited opponents to a respectable 16 runs considering two games against a top-ranked Boise State offense from 2018 and a No. 16 Texas squad.

"I felt pretty good about our pitching, and they kept good teams down to give us chances late in games," Pickett said. "(Rhoden) and junior Samantha Guile did very well, and if we get that kind of consistency out there, we'll have a chance to win a lot of games.

"I'm excited to see what Mikayla is going to do in her first opportunity this weekend."

Pickett said the offense left too many runners on base (26).

"We're not happy with what happened offensively this weekend, especially with the runners left on," Pickett said. "We need to shorten our swings and be more consistent.

"We have to understand that we want to drive the ball up the middle and not try to do too much or swing too big."