NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Formulaic or fantastic. Either way, Nathan Jones again was dominant.
 
Jones spun his second consecutive sub-100-pitch complete-game shutout, scattering four hits in a 7-0 Southland Conference victory against Stephen F. Austin at Jaycees Field on Saturday afternoon.
 
"He's been unbelievable, and he deserves every bit of it," third-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "That young man works his tail off, and he's done it since he got here. I'm so happy for him individually and for our team. When his team has needed him, he swings Saturdays. He's come out and given us a great start. Credit (catcher) Jakob Nunez, too. He's been calling the game for the last four or five weeks for Nathan, and those two together have done a great job."
 
Jones allowed just four singles as he extended his scoreless streak to 18 innings. He struck out six and walked two, using 99 pitches – 64 for strikes -- to author the Southland Conference-leading sixth shutout for Northwestern State (25-17, 13-10).
 
Along the way, Jones became the fifth Demon in school history to strike out at least 200 batters, breaking a tie with Jason Slanina for fifth in the Northwestern State record book. His 40^th start also moved him into a tie with Slanina for fifth in that category.
 
Jones never allowed more than one runner to reach base in any inning, backing up his 96-pitch, three-hit shutout of McNeese with another gem.
 
Jones (6-2) credited his defense for helping him craft his second career shutout.
 
"I didn't have my best put away stuff today again," Jones said. "It took me a while to find my fastball command, but they were making great plays behind me in the field. That win's all on the infield. They did their job better than I could have asked for. Sam (Taylor), (Caleb) Ricca, Hilton (Brown), Steg (Austin Stegall) all made great plays all game. We did well because of them (Saturday)."
 
It was Taylor who jump-started the Demons offense, roughly 15 hours after Northwestern State stranded the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a 4-2 loss Friday night.
 
Taylor led off the game with a first-pitch single and scored on Tyler Smith's single three batters later. He added a two-out RBI double to cap the Demons' three-run fourth inning off Stobart.
 
Taylor capped his three-hit day with a solo home run in the sixth inning, part of a stretch where the Demons scored in each inning from the fourth through the seventh.
 
"We lost a tough one last night, and the coaches told us we needed to come out and attack today," Taylor said. "Being able to come back today with a positive mind-set after losing a tough one shows the resiliency of this team."
 
Each of Northwestern State's infielders made a standout play behind Jones.
 
Shortstop Caleb Ricca took a hit away from Brandon Uhse leading off the sixth by going deep in the hole and making a jump throw across the diamond. Ricca followed that up by taking a carom off third baseman Hilton Brown and throwing out Jordan Monacy to end the inning.
 
That was part of a stretch of 14 straight retired by Jones, who helped himself out by covering first and taking a throw from shallow right by Brown when the freshman was at second base.
 
Taylor made his own standout play, robbing Monacy of a two-out hit in the fourth with a diving play up the middle.
 
"When you shove it in there and you know you have guys behind you who can make plays, which we did in right, second and short and all over the infield (Saturday) – when you've got that, it gives you confidence to keep shoving the ball in the strike zone," Barbier said. "Our formula to win is pretty simple – get a quality start on the mound, play good defense, and get some timely hits. That's the formula for everyone to win, but you can see, in the games we've done well, that's our formula working."
 
In addition to Taylor, Lenni Kunert produced a pair of RBI singles as the Demons tallied 10 hits.
 
The series concludes Sunday with a 1 p.m. matinee. Senior right-hander Cullen McDonald (4-0, 2.66) takes the mound for Northwestern State against Stephen F. Austin right-hander Trayson Kubo (1-1, 6.19).
 
Northwestern State 7, Stephen F. Austin 0
NSU       100 311 100 – 7 11 0
SFA        000 000 000 – 0 4 2
W – Nathan Jones (6-2). L – Jacob Stobart (6-2). 2B – NSU, Sam Taylor. HR – NSU, Sam Taylor (2). Highlights: NSU, Taylor 3-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBIs; Lenni Kunert 2-5, 2 RBIs.  
Records: Northwestern State 25-17, 13-10; Stephen F. Austin 19-24, 12-8.