NACOGDOCHES, Texas -- The Southland Conference race is turning into a sprint as Northwestern State heads to Stephen F. Austin in its final road series of the season.
 
NSU (24-21, 13-8 SLC) is sitting in a tie for sixth place with Lamar (13-8 SLC), who holds the tiebreaker over the Lady Demons after taking two of three in Beaumont, Texas, this past weekend.
 
But NSU is just a game out of fourth place, which is occupied by SFA (30-17, 14-7 SLC) and Southeastern Louisiana (14-7 SLC), whom NSU swept in Natchitoches earlier this season.
 
The Lady Demons play a Friday doubleheader at 1 p.m. with Saturday's finale at noon at the SFA Softball Field. Tony Taglavore will have the play-by-play action on KZBL 100.7 FM and on nsudemons.com. SFA will have a live video feed, which can be accessed through the NSU Softball schedule page.
 
"Wins are at a premium now, and we need to win this series," said NSU coach Donald Pickett. "SFA feels the same way.

"It's huge in the standings to get one of those four byes, and whoever wins this weekend is in a really good position to get one. But it's also important for us to finish strong. We haven't played well on the road, and that hasn't been a secret, but we need to change that this weekend."
 
The top two seeds in the Southland Conference Tournament, which will be held in Natchitoches from May 7-10, will get a double bye with the next two teams getting a single bye.
 
The bottom four seeds in the eight-team tournament will play in a single-elimination round to reach the double-elimination portion of the bracket.
 
The Lady Demons need one win or one Houston Baptist loss to secure a spot in the tournament. HBU (7-13 SLC) and Central Arkansas (8-13 SLC) will battle this weekend before UCA visits NSU to close out the regular season.
 
NSU hasn't played SFA in conference play in the last two seasons, but the Lady Demons did take three non-conference games from the Ladyjacks in 2018. NSU won 4-1 and 6-5 in the Lady Demon Classic before heading to Nacogdoches in a 5-0 win.
 
In the team's last conference series, SFA took two of three in Natchitoches, but NSU won the previous series at SFA in a three-game sweep. The programs are tied at 70-70 in their histories.
 
The Ladyjacks have flourished under third-year coach Nicole Dickson as SFA is in line for its second straight 30-win season. SFA took the No. 2 seed in the 2018 tournament before going 0-2.
 
NSU grabbed the No. 7 seed in 2018, beating Abilene Christian in a first-round game before dropping its next two tournament games this past season.
 
"Obviously we know SFA is a pretty good team, and (Kassidy Wilbur) is a pretty good pitcher," said junior outfielder Kaitlyn St. Clair, who is fourth on the team with a .281 batting average. "We've been working hard these past few days in practice preparing.

"We want to come out and show what we're supposed to be doing on the road."
 
NSU won a critical road series to start SLC play at Sam Houston State (17-4 SLC), handing the Bearkats two of their four league losses. But the Lady Demons are 2-7 on the road in SLC play since.
 
Freshmen have loomed large for both NSU and SFA.
 
Two of NSU's top three RBI producers are freshmen as Riley Cantrell (30 RBIs) and Alexis Perry (25 RBIs) are near the top along with sophomore Cayla Jones (28 RBIs), who is the reigning Louisiana Freshman of the Year.
 
SFA counters with Wilbur (17-11) a freshman who leads the SLC in strikeouts (223) and is ninth in the nation. She's pitched 181.1 innings with a 1.74 ERA.
 
NSU freshman pitcher Bronte Rhoden (5-3) has also played a large role in the Lady Demons' four-pitcher rotation in which all four have at least 52 innings of work.
 
Upperclassmen's roles aren't minimized, either, as SFA's Margarita Corona leads the league with 11 home runs.

NSU's Jones is in the SLC's top 10 in seven different offensive categories.
 
Sophomore E.C. Delafield has shined in the circle and at the plate. Delafield improved to 8-2 as a pitcher Wednesday when she tossed three scoreless innings in a 2-1 win against Grambling.
 
The Stonewall native contributed an RBI as well, boosting her totals to 16 RBIs and 16 runs scored this season.