NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team put together two emphatic victories Saturday in opposite ways.
 
The Demons routed Alcorn 20-3 and 19-1 at Brown-Stroud Field, snapping an eight-game losing streak and breaking out in a big way offensively.
 
"It's good to get on the right side of things and in that win column again," sixth-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "It's been a little while since we've been there. I was proud of the way we came out and played. We started that first game a little shaky. In games like this, you can panic when it gets off to a tough start, but we stayed the course."
 
The Demons (5-9) worked a school single-game record 17 walks in the opener and took eight hit by pitches, tallying 20 runs in a game for the first time since 2019 despite being held to five hits.
 
Northwestern State drew nine of those walks off Alcorn starter Andrew Meadows (0-3), who gave up 11 runs (10 earned) in 3 1-3 innings, as the Demons meted out their five hits at key times.
 
With the game tied at 1 after the first inning, Cameron Parikh singled to start the second inning and Jeffrey Elkins followed with a double inside the third-base bag. Gabe Colaianni's walk loaded the bases before Meadows walked Cam Sibley to put the Demons ahead to stay.
 
Sibley's line was emblematic of NSU's first game performance. Despite not getting a hit, Sibley nearly matched his career high in RBIs, driving in a season-best four runs.
 
No Demon had more than one hit in the opener, but four NSU hitters had multi-RBI games led by Sibley and Gray Rowlett's four-RBI performances.
 
Daunte Stuart homered for the first time this season and drove in three runs while Gabe Colaianni added a pair of RBIs.
 
"We've really emphasized tracking the ball," said Colaianni, who drew two bases-loaded walks among his three free passes in the opener. "We struggled early, so we wanted to focus on tracking the ball and drawing more walks."
 
The offensive explosion was more than enough support for left-hander Cal Carver (1-2), who struck out a career-high 11 in five innings before Chase Prestwich covered the final two perfect innings.
 
While free bases were the order of the day for the Demons in the opener, NSU earned every its fair share of its 19 runs in the second game, pounding out a season-high 14 hits, seven of which went for extra bases.
 
NSU had six doubles in the nightcap, doing so for the first time since March 9, 2019, at Abilene Christian. That game also was the last time NSU crossed the 20-run plateau.
 
Elkins had one of those doubles as well as his first home run of the season, going 3-for-3 with a career-high five RBIs. Elkins finished the doubleheader 4-for-5 with seven runs scored, six RBIs, a pair of doubles, two walks and a run-scoring hit by pitch.
 
Elkins had two plate appearances in the nightcap with a chance to hit for NSU's first cycle since 2017 but was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and drew a walk.
 
"Coach Barbier told me, 'If you get it, take it,'" Elkins said. "We took what we got and pulled out a win. That's all I'm really worried about."
 
The Demons' season-high hit total backed a strong five innings from right-hander Johnathan Harmon (2-1), who shut out the Braves on four hits, striking out a season-high five.
 
"I thought Cal and Johnny were both really good," Barbier said. "Cal can make it dance a couple of different ways. He gets some swings and misses, and Johnny's more of an early-contact guy. He gets a lot of weak contact, which he's done since he came on campus. They're two completely different guys who can really make it tough on an offense in a doubleheader."
 
As it had in the first game, NSU got production up and down the order in the second game.
 
Elkins, Colaianni (3-for-5, 2 doubles, 3 RBIs) and Daunte Stuart (3-for-5, double, RBI) all had three-hit games while Stuart and Bryce Holmes scored three times in addition to Elkins' career-high four runs scored.
 
Colaianni's first career multi-hit game came after he entered the game as an injury replacement. He followed his teammates' lead as the Demons found their offensive stride.
 
"When you see more hits, it gives everybody more confidence," Colaianni said. "I saw my boy Jeff in front of me hitting. He got some hits, and I had to follow up."
 
The series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m. Drayton Brown (0-2, 4.02) will start for Northwestern State against an undetermined Alcorn starter.
 
Northwestern State 20-19, Alcorn 3-1
Game 1
ASU       010 200 0 – 3 4 3
NSU       131 672 x – 20 5 0
W – Cal Carver (1-2). L – Andrew Meadows (0-3). 2B – NSU, Jeffrey Elkins. HR – ASU, Diego Lopez-Molina (0-1). NSU, Daunte Stuart (1). Highlights: ASU, Jamil Betancourt 2-3, RBI.
Game 2
ASU       000 000 1 – 1 6 5
NSU       123 463 x – 19 14 0
W – Johnathan Harmon (2-1). L – Devin Puckett (0-2). 2B – NSU, Larson Fontenot, Daunte Stuart, Baylin Sorensen, Jeffrey Elkins, Gabe Colaianni 2. HR – NSU, Elkins (1). Highlights: ASU, Jamil Betancourt 2-3. NSU, Cameron Parikh 2-4, RBI; Stuart 3-5, 2B, RBI; Elkins 3-3, 2B, HR, 5 RBIs; Colaianni 3-5, 2 2Bs, 3 RBIs.
Records: Alcorn 0-10, Northwestern State 5-9.