HAMMOND – When Cullen McDonald went to three-ball counts on each of the first three batters he saw Sunday afternoon, the thought of a perfect game or a no-hitter seemed far away.
 
The longer McDonald worked against Southeastern Louisiana, the more it came into view. And while, ultimately, McDonald did not produce a historic moment, he was plenty dominant, pitching the Demons to a 3-1 victory in the Southland Conference series finale at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
 
"When you're not going good – we had two games where we weren't going as good, had guys struggling offensively – you need a guy to go out and win the game, and that's what Cullen McDonald did," third-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "He went out and won the game. It's not about feeling good all the time. It's about going out when you don't feel your best and grinding through it. Those first two innings, he had a little fortune. Then he locked it down and went and won the game."
 
McDonald (4-0) retired the first 19 batters he faced and threw his first complete game since May 14, 2017, when he did so at Abliene Christian. He struck out a season-high eight, scattered three hits and did not allow a walk.
 
McDonald needed 112 pitches, throwing 77 for strikes. Until Preston Faulkner's single through the right side with one out in the seventh, the closest the Lions (18-18, 10-5) came to a hit was in the fourth inning when Kyle Schmpf's groundball clipped McDonald's cleat on its way to Caleb Ricca, who made the throw to complete the inning-ending 1-6-3 putout.
 
"I was falling behind (early) and they were hitting balls right at guys," McDonald said. "I knew the guys behind me were going to make plays."
 
After being held to five hits in each of the first two games of the series, the Demons (20-14, 10-8) notched seven hits and three runs off Southeastern starter Will Warren (2-5) through the first three innings.
 
Larson Fontenot, making his first start of the series, delivered a two-run, opposite-field single in the second and Austin Stegall ripped an RBI single off the left-field wall in the third to build a 3-0 lead for McDonald.
"We had multiple guys today that did a really good job," Barbier said. "Larson Fontenot getting back in there took some good swings. Tyler Smith (had three hits). Sam Taylor didn't have a hit, but he was on the barrel four times against a good arm. Both arms they ran out there were really good arms."
 
Neither did what McDonald did.
 
Once he settled in, McDonald went to only one three-ball count between the first and seventh innings while flummoxing the Lions hitters.
 
"It felt good," McDonald said. "Someone in the stands yelled, 'Hey, break up this no-hitter.' I looked up it was one out in the seventh and their two-hole hitter (Faulkner) was up. Sure enough, the next pitch, the guy got a hit. It would have been cool (to finish the perfect game), but a win is pretty good, too."
 
Smith went 3-for-4 and Caleb Ricca was 2-for-4 as the Demons tallied 10 hits against Warren and reliever Bryce Tassin.
 
Faulkner had two of Southeastern Louisiana's hits. Nathan Pilutti's opposite-field solo home run with two outs in the eighth inning broke up McDonald's shutout bid.
 
In the ninth, Faulkner's two-out single extended the game before McDonald finished it off with a strikeout of Schimpf on an elevated fastball.
 
After snapping a three-game losing streak Sunday, the Demons return home to open a four-game homestand against LSU-Alexandria on Wednesday. Northwestern State hosts McNeese in a three-game Southland Conference series beginning Thursday.
  
Northwestern State 3, Southeastern Louisiana 1
NSU       021 000 000 – 3 10 0
SLU        000 000 010 – 1 3 1
W – Cullen McDonald (4-0). L – Will Warren (2-5). HR – SLU, Nathan Pilutti (4). Highlights: NSU, Tyler Smith 3-4; Caleb Ricca 2-4. SLU, Preston Faulkner 2-4.
Records: Northwestern State 20-14, 10-8; Southeastern Louisiana 18-18, 10-5.