JACKSON, Miss. – Following a challenging weekend against a surging Houston team, Northwestern State is looking for a pair of rebound performances in Wednesday's doubleheader at Jackson State.
 
The Lady Demons (12-11) failed to capitalize on their opportunities at the plate and saw the Cougars do the exact opposite in the three-game sweep this past weekend, the first time this season NSU has lost more than two games in a row. 
 
"I don't think we played anywhere near our potential this weekend and that's frustrating," head coach Donald Pickett said. "Obviously you want to win every game that you can, but more importantly you want to play the best you can or as close to it and you can and feel good about it win or lose. You're going to win a lot of games doing that and we're going to see how important that is and hopefully those games in Houston were a wakeup call for the team."
 
NSU has an immediate chance to answer the call with a pair of games in a midweek road trip to Jackson State (11-8) starting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Live stat links for the game will be available on www.nsudemons.comor on the NSU Athletics mobile app.
 
Even through a tough road weekend as the 13-game road stretch, the longest of the season, continues this week, the Lady Demons continue to find bright spots, growth and progression among returners and the bevy of players that are still adjusting to everyday roles.
 
Junior pitcher Bronte Rhoden, one of the few veterans on the team, has excelled out of the bullpen over the past few weeks for NSU and earned her first Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week honor on Monday after her three solid outings in Houston.
 
She struck out four batters in four innings total allowing just two hits, the only two hits she's allowed in her past five appearances over a total of seven innings. She has struck out 11 batters during that time as well and not allowed a single earned run.
 
Taylor Williams has found a comfortable position in the two spot in the lineup in the past month of the season, Lexie Roos has been a spark of the bench and sister Laney has been one of the most consistent hitters in the conference.
 
"There are a lot of great things and things that they've done so far," Pickett said. "As a coach you want everything to be great but you can't have it all the time and sometimes, like we tell the girls, it doesn't happen as fast as you want it to happen. You've got to stay patient and keep trusting and working towards that and good things will happen. That's going to be the key going forward."
 
The Tigers enter the midweek pair after a 2-1 opening weekend in SWAC play, taking two of three from Bethune-Cookman. Freshman leadoff hitter Mari Stephens led JSU going 6-for-9 in the series and has hit safely in six of the past seven games. She leads the team with a .361 average with a pair of homers and 10 driven in.
 
Both teams have wins against common opponents UT Martin and Eastern Illinois this season.
 
"Jackson State has a couple of good wins against some quality teams," Pickett said. "We're going over on Wednesday morning so it's going to be a long day and we've got to come out and bounce back from this weekend and see where that leads."