HOUSTON – Road trips often present challenges for college baseball teams.
 
For Northwestern State and third-year head coach Bobby Barbier, he sees them as opportunities.
 
After spending the past two weekends at home, the Demons make their second trip to Houston this season for their second Southland Conference road series of the year, facing Houston Baptist in a trio of afternoon games that begin at 2 p.m. Friday.
 
The series also includes matinees as 1 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. All three games can be heard on 100.7 FM KZBL and the Demon Sports Network. Streaming audio is available on www.NSUDemons.com and through the new Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free from the Apple Store or Google Play.
 
"It's a matter of them coming together when you're on the road," Barbier said. "The distractions are put to the side. At home, you have distractions. There's a smaller number of people. It's going to play baseball. You dedicate all your focus to winning that game Friday. You go take a nap and do it again the next day. We've been in tight games on the road, and, hopefully, we can build off that."
 
Northwestern State (13-9, 5-4) can build off its past three games, all wins.
 
Right fielder Austin Stegall has played a key part in all three games, collecting the go-ahead RBI in Saturday's 5-2 win against Lamar before homering in Sunday's victory against the Cardinals.
 
Stegall sparked Wednesday's 6-3 triumph at Southern by homering for the second straight game and starting a key two-run, ninth-inning rally with a leadoff double.
 
"I'm seeing it well," said Stegall, who has hit safely in four straight games, producing two-hit games in three of those. "I'm trying to see the ball as early as possible."
 
While the Demons have found their stride a bit, Houston Baptist (6-18, 0-6) is off to a slow start in conference play.
 
The Huskies stepped out of conference to face Tulane this past weekend and took the Green Wave to the limit, dropping a one-run and two-run decision in a three-game sweep. Houston Baptist recovered with a 10-3 win against Prairie View A&M on Tuesday, snapping a seven-game losing streak.
 
The Huskies had to replace their top five hitters and seven of their top eight in terms of batting average from a team that reached the bracket finals of the Southland Conference Tournament.
 
"(Head coach Jared Moon) is a great coach, a guy who's done really well in their transition to our league," Barbier said. "They're always competitive. They have two really good starters we know of. They tend to reload with a lot of California junior college guys for the most part. I expect them to be a good team with good starting pitching."
 
After a weekend where the Demons fought off a flu bug that had as many as 10 players missing games, Northwestern State should be close to full strength for its first weekend road series since March 8-10 at Abilene Christian.
 
"It was good to have that fight in the dugout even though we were missing 10 to 12 guys," Barbier said. "It's easy when circumstances don't go your way and you say, wait until we're back at full strength. I'm proud of the guys, proud of the fight."
 
Series probables
Friday: Northwestern State LHP Ridge Heisler (2-2, 2.14) at Houston Baptist RHP Zach Carter (1-4, 5.20)
Saturday: Northwestern State RHP Jerry Maddox (1-1, 5.96) at Houston Baptist RHP Brady Batten (0-3, 6.83)
Sunday: Northwestern State RHP Nathan Jones (3-1, 2.67) at Houston Baptist RHP Kyle Gruller (0-3, 1.83)