NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team proved again Friday night how good it can be when backed into a corner.
Unfortunately for the Demons, the hole they dug themselves against Grambling was too much to overcome.
Northwestern State put together a four-run eighth inning, but it was not enough to overcome a five-run deficit as the Demons fell to the visiting Tigers, 7-6, late Friday night at Brown-Stroud Field in a game that began nearly two-and-a-half hours late because of rain that passed through Natchitoches earlier in the evening.
"They played great," third-year head coach
Bobby Barbier said. "Their lineup really swung the bat well. We weren't ready to play. That's on us as coaches, not getting them ready to play. We've got to do a better job of that. We weren't ready to play at the plate. We didn't battle with two strikes early in the game. We do good late in the game trying to fight back. Like we've said, until you learn to fight for your life early in the game, you get beat a lot of times in games like this."
The Demons (26-19) entered this weekend's series leading the Southland Conference in fielding percentage, but a pair of errors and a dubious balk call helped Grambling (24-21) erase a 2-1 sixth-inning deficit.
Those two defensive miscues led to a pair of unearned runs against
Ridge Heisler (3-5), who spun a quality start of six innings with six strikeouts.
The Demons had an opportunity to answer against Kerry Boykins Jr. (5-2) in the bottom of the sixth after putting runners on first and second with one out. However, a missed read on a ball in the dirt led to both runners being tagged out on the bases in the same play, leaving the Demons trailing by a pair.
Northwestern State turned four double plays in the first four innings behind Heisler. Grambling, though, took advantage of the defensive lapses in the sixth inning and again in the eight to produce twin three-run innings that held up by the slimmest of margins.
GSU's three-run eighth started with a hit batter and was aided by Jahmoi Percival reaching on a wild pitch when he struck out. Three batters later, Ian Bailey's two-run triple provided what became the winning run.
"You've got to find a way to get a lead and extend it, and make the other team fight from behind," Barbier said. "Give them all the credit. They had really good at-bats, even off Ridge. I thought Ridge was really good today, and they had good at-bats."
After being held to single runs in the third inning (
Sam Taylor RBI double) and the fifth (run-scoring wild pitch), the Demons awakened in the eighth inning.
Marshall Skinner led off with a double, starting a run of three straight hits and five straight Demons to reach base.
Caleb Ricca's RBI single began the scoring in the inning, which also included an RBI hit by pitch by
Tyler Smith and sacrifice flies by
Hilton Brown and
Lenni Kunert.
Kaelin Woodard, the third Grambling pitcher of the inning, got a called third strike to end the inning and watched his defense save the day in the ninth.
Skinner again led off and rifled a ball toward left-center that Grambling center fielder Warren Laster laid out for and pulled down in the gap, robbing Skinner of at least a double. Woodard took advantage of a borderline 3-1 pitch on Taylor (3-for-5) to stay alive in the count before retiring the final two Demons to record his second save of the season.
The series continues at 6 p.m. Saturday. Right-hander
Nathan Jones (6-2, 2.14) takes the mound for Northwestern State against Grambling right-hander Jason Alvarez (3-2, 7.33).
Grambling 7, Northwestern State 6
GSU 100 003 030 – 7 12 2
NSU 001 010 040 – 6 7 2
W – Kerry Boykins Jr. (5-2). L –
Ridge Heisler (3-5). S – Kaelin Woodard (2). 2B – GSU, Richard Ortiz; Warren Laster. NSU,
Sam Taylor;
Austin Stegall;
Marshall Skinner. 3B – GSU, Ian Bailey. HR – GSU, Ortiz (4). Highlights: GSU, Ortiz 2-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBIs; Kevin Whitaker Jr. 2-4; Bailey 2-4, 3B, 2 RBIs. NSU, Taylor 3-5, 2B, RBI.
Records: Grambling 24-21; Northwestern State 26-19.
