CONWAY, Arkansas – Stacking wins and building opportunities.
 
That could be as simplistic as Bobby Barbier's message to his Northwestern State baseball team is as it opens a four-game Southland Conference series at Central Arkansas on Friday at 6 p.m. at Bear Stadium.
 
"A few weeks ago, we had a chance to be in first place or 10^th place after the weekend," said Barbier, whose team also will play a 1 p.m. Saturday doubleheader and a 1 p.m. Sunday single game in their final SLC series in Conway. "We played well. When you play well, you get more opportunities. It's still the same thing, it's playing ball. It's executing. It's preparing. That's what gets overlooked a bunch. Everybody wants to talk about the games, but the preparing on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, before you get on the road to play a team like UCA (is equally important.


"We've provided ourselves more opportunities because of how we've played. How will that affect us? If we keep preaching the same things we've been preaching and doing the things we've been doing, it shouldn't affect us at all. What matters is how we prepare for when the first pitch goes down at UCA."
 
Both teams enter the series off their best performances of the Southland season.
 
Northwestern State (21-17, 15-9) swept four games from Nicholls while Central Arkansas (14-21, 9-15) took three of four from Stephen F. Austin to stay in contention for a berth in next month's Southland Conference Tournament.
 
"A lot of this league is, obviously, how you play but also when you play teams," Barbier said. "They had a rough stretch for a while, but they got back on the horse last week. It's a hard place to play. Their overall record's not great, but look at their home record, it's pretty good."
 
The Bears have won nine of 17 games at home in 2021 while the Demons have split 16 road games, going 7-5 away from home in Southland Conference play.
 
While the Demon offense posted 20 runs in Saturday's doubleheader sweep of Nicholls, the pitching remained consistent throughout the weekend. Northwestern State's four starters – Johnathan Harmon, Cal Carver, Levi David and Donovan Ohnoutka – averaged more than six innings per start with three of them pitching at least seven innings.
 
In his fourth career start, Ohnoutka worked a career-long 7 1-3 innings of NSU's 2-1 series finale win against the Colonels.
 
"In a four-game series, you need strong starts," Barbier said. "You'll be hard-pressed to find teams who have success in a four-game weekend series who don't get good starts. The bullpen guys came in and, the times I got to watch, they executed pitches. We played pretty solid defense behind them. It was encouraging to see. We hit a lull with the pitching staff for a couple of weeks where it wasn't quite as sharp. The hitters came in and picked us up in that stretch. It will be fun on the back end to see if we can get them talking to each other."
 
The Demons plan to stick with the same rotation this weekend as they make their final SLC trip to Conway. Central Arkansas will depart the Southland Conference at the conclusion of the 2020-21 athletic calendar to join the A-SUN Conference.
 
Northwestern State's final two road trips of the 2021 season have the Demons making their final visits to both UCA and Stephen F. Austin as conference rivals.
 
"I'll miss (UCA) coach (Allen) Gum," Barbier said. "He and I are good friends. That's what you miss more than the schools. It's the relationships we've built with (SFA) coach (Johnny) Cardenas, coach Gum and the guys who have been here for a long time. I'll miss those guys for sure. It will be good to go play them one more time."


Streaming audio of all four games of the series will be available on www.NSUDemons.com and the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices. The series finale will air on 95.9 FM Kix Country in Natchitoches and the Demon Sports Network.
 
Series Probables
Friday: Northwestern State RHP Johnathan Harmon (3-2, 4.19) at Central Arkansas TBA
Saturday: Northwestern State LHP Cal Carver (5-3, 3.54) and RHP Levi David (2-4, 3.59) at Central Arkansas TBA/TBA
Sunday: Northwestern State RHP Donovan Ohnoutka (2-0, 1.29) at Central Arkansas TBA