Box Score HOUSTON – Two walk-off losses in two days did not deter the Northwestern State baseball team.
 
Neither did a controversial call in the 10^th inning Sunday before Tyler Smith sent the Demons on a happy bus ride back to Natchitoches.
 
Smith's solo home run in the 11^th inning provided the difference as Northwestern State outlasted Houston, 2-1, in the series finale at Darryl & Lori Schroeder Park.
 
"We've done this many times," said Smith, whose home run came off left-hander Clay Augilar (0-1). "We just calmed it down. People always say left-on-left is hard, but I don't look at it like that. I just get up there and swing."
 
Smith's home run came after a bizarre end to the 10^th inning that saw the Demons (1-2) have the potential go-ahead run wiped out.
 
After the first two Demons went in order, Lenni Kunert and Caleb Ricca reached on back-to-back Cougars errors before Luke Watson drew a walk to load the bases. J.P. Lagreco worked the count full from Houston reliever Tristen Bayless before Bayless' full-count pitch hit Lagreco.
 
Before Lagreco could head to first base and drive in the go-ahead run, home plate umpire Ken Langford called Lagreco out, setting off several heated arguments.
 
Once the chaos settled, Jose Vasquez (1-0) retired the Cougars in order in the 10^th, setting up Smith's game-winning solo shot to right field.
 
Vasquez walked a tightrope in the 11^th – his fourth inning of work.
 
Joe Davis led off with a single and a Grayson Padgett single two batters later put runners on the corners before Vasquez induced a comebacker to put runners on second and third with two outs. Vasquez then got pinch hitter Rey Fuentes to fly out, appropriately, to Smith in center field to clinch NSU's first win of the season.
 
"All the games were right there at the end," third-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "It's going to make our team mature fast. We're already a mature team, but it will season them early in the year to play these games and come out ahead."
 
Sunday's result flipped the script from the first two games of the series in which the Demons took the lead and saw the Cougars (2-1) rally in the later innings.
 
Northwestern State senior right-hander Nathan Jones and Houston left-hander Lael Lockhart Jr. locked up in an early-season pitchers' duel with each striking out eight in five innings of work.
 
Lockhart retired the first six batters he faced before Jeffrey Elkins singled in his first collegiate at-bat to lead off the third inning. Lockhart continued to keep the Demons offense off balance, but Jones was able to settle in after a choppy first two innings in which the Cougars tallied four hits and their lone run.
 
Across his final three innings, Jones struck out five and retired the final nine batters he faced before turning it over to relievers Robert Burke and Vasquez, who combined for six shutout innings of relief.
 
"Our pitchers dealt all weekend," Smith said. "We finally got one for them."
 
Vasquez struck out five in his four innings of work as trio of Demons pitchers collected 14 strikeouts. The teams combined for 28 strikeouts in the game.
 
The Demons managed just five hits and no player had more than one. Two of the five hits went for extra bases and produced both Northwestern State runs.
 
Caleb Ricca, who finished the weekend 6-for-15, tied the game with a one-out double in the eighth inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-long 13 games. Ricca's double into the right-field corner came two batters after Jakob Nunez drew a leadoff walk and Lenni Kunert moved pinch runner Larson Fontenot to second base on a hit-and-run groundout.
 
Ricca was thrown out trying to stretch the double into a triple, but the Demons' bullpen stifled the Cougars, who managed just five hits in the final nine innings of the game.
 
"It was a proud moment for us as coaches to watch them fight through the adversity of the first two games and still have energy to fight and get the W," Barbier said. "It took all year for that team (last year) to find out who they were. Are we going to do that this year? Are we going to wait all year long or can we pick up where we left off with that attitude we played with, that toughness and grit.
 
"Can that be what this program will be? We took a step toward that today."
 
The Demons return to action Wednesday when they host preseason No. 1 LSU at Brown-Stroud Field. First pitch for the ESPN+ broadcast is set
 
Northwestern State 2, Houston 1, 11 innings
NSU       000 000 010 01 – 2 5 1
Houston              010 000 000 00 – 1 9 2
W – Jose Vasquez (1-0). L – Clay Aguilar (0-1). 2B – NSU, Caleb Ricca. UH, Joe Davis; Drew Minter. HR – NSU, Tyler Smith (1). Highlights: NSU, Smith GW HR. UH, Jared Triolo 2-5; Davis 2-3, 2B.
Records: Northwestern State 1-2; Houston 2-1