NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team will go back to the not-so-distant past this weekend.
 
The surging Demons, winners of four straight, welcome South Dakota State to Brown-Stroud Field for a four-game series presented by the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. The series also includes a 2 p.m. Friday doubleheader and a 2 p.m. Saturday series finale. Free streaming audio and subscription video is available on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices.
 
After not playing a four-game series between 2016-19, the set with the Jackrabbits (4-10) marks the third straight season for Northwestern State (7-9) to play at least one series of that length. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all nine of the Southland Conference series the Demons played in 2021 were four-game affairs.
 
"We want to be good hosts," sixth-year head coach Bobby Barbier said of the decision to play a Thursday-Saturday series. "They asked to do that. They're on a road trip, so this helps them get home earlier. I hope someone would do the same for us if we were on a long road trip like that. It's going to move things around a little bit."
 
The movement will come in the NSU starting rotation.
 
Because of a rainout this past Friday, the Demons will make a slight adjustment to their starting rotation to keep their three typical weekend arms from having two fewer days' rest between starts.
 
"We're only going to bump Cal (Carver) and Johnny (Harmon) up one day instead of two," Barbier said. "Well go with Donny (Ohnoutka), who's our normal mid-week starter, on Thursday, so it sets us up better for the weekend."
 
Two weekends ago in Arlington, Texas, Carver, Harmon and Brown all produced quality starts and each went five solid to strong innings in a sweep of Alcorn that kicked off the Demons' current four-game win streak.
 
That same win streak coincided with an offensive explosion that has seen Northwestern State score in double figures in four straight games for the first time since Feb. 28-March 5, 2010. Following the Demons' 21-7 win against Lamar on Tuesday night, Northwestern State has scored 76 runs in its past four games and has outscored Alcorn and Lamar by a combined 64 runs.
 
Barbier said Tuesday night his team needed to "move past" the recent success in the same way it navigated a tough offensive stretch during an eight-game losing streak that preceded the current four-game run.
 
Similarly, South Dakota State has navigated life on the road the entire 2022 season.
 
The Jackrabbits are 14 games into a season-opening, 26-game road trip that continues through the end of March. Despite the lengthy sojourn, South Dakota State has posted wins at Minnesota, Wichita State, Incarnate Word and Central Arkansas.
 
"They've played some good teams on this trip," Barbier said. "They're a good team that's played a bunch of games down here. We need to play somebody new like them. We'll get to know them. They've been great to work with so far. I think they got into town (on Monday), so they'll be here for a little while."
 
Series Probables
Thursday: S.D. State RHP Owen Bishop (0-2, 4.22) at Northwestern State RHP Donovan Ohnoutka (1-2, 5.79)
Friday: S.D. State RHP Nic McCay (0-2, 7.00) and RHP Drew Beazley (0-1, 14.14) at Northwestern State LHP Cal Carver (1-2, 4.79) and RHP Johnathan Harmon (2-1, 1.64)
Saturday: S.D. State LHP Cody Carlson (2-2, 4.29) at Northwestern State RHP Drayton Brown (1-2, 3.05)