Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Even though it was a road game, the Northwestern State baseball team had home-field advantage the final three innings Saturday afternoon at Jaycees Field.
 
Freshman right-hander Drayton Brown, pitching in the same complex where he learned to play the game, tossed three scoreless innings to close out a 5-4 Demon win in Game 2 of a doubleheader against Stephen F. Austin, securing a split of the twin bill.
 
"He's been great all year," fifth-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "He competes in the strike zone. We've got to do more of that on the mound. We haven't played extremely well in these three games, so finding a way to win one is good. We put ourselves in position to even it up (Sunday)."


Brown's fifth save of the season helped fellow freshman Micah Berens (1-0) collect his first career win in a game where the Demons had to cover the final 18 outs with their bullpen.
 
The efforts of Brown and Berens made that happen after Northwestern State (26-23, 20-15) saw a 4-1 lead disappear as Stephen F. Austin (18-28, 15-19) scored two runs in the third and one in the fourth.
 
Berens delivered two-plus scoreless innings, keeping the game tied and setting up Tyler Smith's go-ahead RBI groundout in the seventh inning.
 
After Bryan Burgos floated a lead-off single to shallow right-center field in the seventh, Barbier turned to Brown, who was brilliant in front of a throng of friends and family in his hometown.
 
Brown retired the first six batters he faced and worked around a lead-off error in the ninth by stranding the tying run on third base. Brown handled the final out himself, fielding Cameron Crawford's spinning grounder up the first-base line and stepping on the bag to move the Demons closer to a Southland Conference Tournament berth.
 
"I had all my family up there supporting me, so it felt like a home game," Brown said. "(Crawford's grounder) came back a little bit. I was sprinting after it. I wanted to make the last play."
 
Brown's play secured the Demons' eighth straight win in a one-run game and punctuated a game in which the NSU bullpen was sharp.
 
Brown, Berens and Alex Makarewich combined for six scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits.
 
"Micah came in and did a really good job," Barbier said. "That was a really big part of the game. We struggled to throw strikes to that point, and he settled the game down for us and allowed us to win it."
 
Daunte Stuart (2-for-3) and Jeffrey Elkins (2-for-5) each had two hits in the nightcap while Smith had a pair of go-ahead RBIs – one on a bases-loaded walk in the third inning and the game-winner in the seventh.
 
Smith added a pivotal outfield assist – the 27th of his career – in the fourth, cutting down Clayton Loranger by 15 feet at home plate to keep the game tied.
 
Cameron Horton followed up his three-hit game in the opener with a two-run single that highlighted a four-run third inning that put the Demons up early.
 
In the opener, Northwestern State put up three runs in the third inning to take a 3-1 lead before the Lumberjacks broke through with a huge two-out rally in the third en route to a 9-4 win.
 
Donovan Ohnoutka (2-2) retired the first two hitters in the inning before Sean Moore's double to right-center started a four-run rally that included a pair of Demon throwing errors on one play.
 
After the Demons cut the lead to 5-4 on Larson Fontenot's RBI single in the fourth, Skylar Black and Chaney Dodge homered as part of a four-run SFA fourth that capped the scoring.
 
The series concludes at 11 a.m. Sunday with a single game. Northwestern State will throw right-hander Johnathan Harmon (4-3, 4.92) while the Lumberjacks have not announced a starter.
 
Stephen F. Austin 9-4, Northwestern State 4-5
Game 1
NSU       003 100 0 – 4 10 4
SFA        104 400 x – 9 11 2
W – Harrison Lee (2-2). L – Donovan Ohnoutka (2-2). 2B – NSU, Tyler Smith. SFA, Sean Moore. HR – SFA, Skylar Black (6); Chaney Dodge (5). Highlights: NSU, Larson Fontenot 2-4, RBI; Cameron Horton 3-4; Cam Sibley 2-4. SFA, Dodge 3-4, HR, 3 RBIs; Clayton Loranger 2-4, RBI.
Game 2
NSU       004 000 100 – 5 8 1
SFA        102 100 000 – 4 3 1
W—Micah Berens (1-0). L – Cully Mangus (0-1). S – Drayton Brown (5). 2B – NSU, Daunte Stuart, Peyton Davis. Highlights: NSU, Stuart 2-3, 2B; Jeffrey Elkins 2-5, RBI. SFA, Bryan Burgos 2-2, RBI.
Records: Northwestern State 26-23, 20-15; Stephen F. Austin 18-28, 15-19.