NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State pitching duo of E.C. Delafield and Samantha Guile fended off a feisty Grambling bunch Wednesday as the Lady Demons continued their home winning streak with a 2-1 win.

Delafield (8-2) thwarted an early GSU (16-23) scoring opportunity to highlight a scoreless three innings in which she tied a career-high with seven strikeouts.

After a pair of singles put two Lady Tigers in scoring position, Delafield struck out the next two batters. GSU left four of its five stranded runners in scoring position.

"The first inning I stuck with my drop ball, but (Grambling) put the barrel on the ball," Delafield said. "Coach Brooke and I decided to go with my rise ball, and we were able to work that in and get them off-balanced.

"This is a really good win because we've struggled in some close games, and we were really focused on not letting teams score early. Our coaches challenged us from the weekend, and I think everybody stepped up and did their part."

NSU (24-21) stretched its home winning streak to seven games, which includes home sweeps of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Southeastern.

The Lady Demons scraped together enough offense to score single runs in the first and third innings.

Freshman Alexis Perry singled home Cayla Jones in her only at-bat to get NSU on the board. Perry is third Lady Demon to reach 25 RBIs (Riley Cantrell 30, Jones 28). Jones doubled to lead off the inning, part of her 2-for-4 performance.

Delafield helped her own cause in the third inning with an RBI ground out to score Hayley Barbazon. Barbazon walked and moved into scoring position on a Maggie Black double.

Black, who missed the last four games after being hit with a sharp grounder against TAMU-CC, went 2-for-2 as a substitution. Junior Emma Hawthorne also had two hits, extending her hitting streak to five and compiling eight hits during that stretch.

"I was super excited to come back tonight, and the biggest thing was that I wasn't going to tense up and put pressure on myself," Black said. "I had a lot of fun tonight.

"I was so proud of (Delafield and Guile). Delafield had a great game, and we all just told (Guile) to 'Close the door,' and that's what she did."

Two of NSU's eight hits were doubles off GSU starter Ja'Lynn Bonner, who allowed two runs with two walks in a complete-game effort.

Guile entered the game in the fourth inning in a pre-determined pitching change, tossing four innings and earning her first save of her NSU career.

She allowed one hit, one walk and hit a batter with four strikeouts as Grambling attempted several rallies.

Guile threw three perfect innings, but Grambling made a sixth-inning charge. Guile hit and walked a batter before Tia Coleman delivered a two-out RBI single to score the Lady Tigers lone run.

But Guile and NSU steeled themselves to strand two runners in scoring position before Guile slammed the door with a perfect seventh inning.

NSU gets back into Southland Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Stephen F. Austin starting Friday. The Lady Demons need just one league win or a Houston Baptist loss to clinch a spot in the SLC Tournament, which will be played at Lady Demon Diamond on May 7-10.