FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – The 2019 Northwestern State baseball reunion tour reaches its final leg this week.
 
The Demons' two-game series at No. 6/8 Arkansas, which begins Tuesday night at 6:30, marks the culmination of a run of six straight games where Northwestern State's opposing coach shares some tie to the Demons' program.
 
It began with the Demons' 6-3 win against LSU-Alexandria, coached by former Demon player Steven Adams Jr., on April 17. It continued with the Demons taking two of three games this past weekend from McNeese, coached by one-time Demons assistant coach Justin Hill.
 
It concludes with a pair of games (Tuesday's and Wednesday's 3 p.m. matinee) against the 2018 College World Series runner-up Razorbacks, who are skippered by Dave Van Horn, who held the same role at Northwestern State from 1995-97. Both games can be heard on 100.7 FM KZBL and the Demon Sports Network. Free streaming audio is available on both www.NSUDemons.com and the new Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which is available free through the Apple Store and Google Play.
 
"We're at a point in the season where this can be a really good things for us, because we're starting to find our stride in all phases of the game from a consistency standpoint," assistant coach Chris Bertrand said. "What better way to challenge that – to remain consistent, to remain competitive and to get better as a ball club – than to go play one of the best teams in the country? We look forward to seeing how we grow as a team on this road trip, to take what we're going to learn and to take that momentum into the home stretch of the season."
 
While the Demons (23-15) hope to apply what they learn from the matchup with their second and third Top 25 matchups of the season against the Razorbacks (30-10), they will enter the game with some momentum.
 
The Demons swept their second straight Southland Conference doubleheader Saturday, taking two from state rival McNeese, including a last at-bat, 6-5 win in the nightcap.
 
Northwestern State expects to learn plenty by matching up with one of its former skippers, one who played a pivotal role in establishing one of the conference's top programs in the mid-1990s.
 
Following Jim Wells, Van Horn's three seasons atop the Demons program produced a .620 winning percentage (106-65), the 1995 Southland Conference championship and the 1997 SLC Louisiana Division title.
 
"We have the utmost respect for coach Van Horn," Bertrand said. "If he helped to lay the foundation at Northwestern, look at what he's truly built at the University of Arkansas. We, as coaches, can go and learn so much from guys who have been there and done that. We, as a club, can go and learn from a quality team, one of the best in the country. What better way to honor what he helped build here."
 
The Demons pitching staff leads the Southland Conference in shutouts with five and ranks ninth nationally in that category and in walks per nine innings (3.00) will learn about itself as well.
 
The Razorbacks' .299 team batting average is 22^nd nationally, and Arkansas ranks 28^th nationally with 44 home runs. In its weekend sweep of then-No. 2 Mississippi State, the Razorbacks scored 27 runs with 22 coming in the final two games.
 
"Again, what can we do from a competition standpoint to learn from that and take it into the home stretch," Bertrand said. "We have a couple more quality mid-week games against Louisiana Tech and ULM. We absolutely have to compete every weekend down the stretch of Southland play against Stephen F. Austin, Incarnate Word and Sam Houston State. You have to win four games in four days – or get to four wins – to win the Southland Conference Tournament.
 
"In order to do that, we're going to need the depth of our pitching staff. This challenge will help us get better for the last 15 games of the season."