NATCHITOCHES – After a 28-day, 16-game road stretch and one of the best weekends of the season thus far, Northwestern State finally returns to Lady Demon Diamond on Tuesday night for a midweek contest with Louisiana Tech.
 
The Lady Demons (20-12, 3-0 SLC) have won eight of their past nine games, are fresh off a three-game sweep at Houston Baptist and return home for the first time in a month to host the backend of a home-and-home series with the Lady Techsters (20-13, 5-4 CUSA) beginning at 6 p.m. NSU won the first meeting 3-2 on Feb. 16 in Ruston.
 
The game can be seen on www.nsudemons.com/watch with the live stat feed also available on the website or NSU Athletics mobile app, a free download in either the Apple or Google stores.
 
The formula for NSU in each of the three wins against HBU boiled down to four things – take an early lead, have your starting pitcher throw a complete game, add some insurance runs late and play superior defense.
 
The Lady Demons did all of those things in spades with 10 first-inning runs, outscoring HBU 22-4 on the weekend, three complete games in the circle and just one error in 85 chances in the field.
 
"We are obviously excited about coming out in the first weekend on the road and getting a sweep in conference play," head coach Donald Pickett said. "Now we've got to go back and do the work again next week. 
 
"We've got a good LA Tech team coming in on Tuesday and Nicholls this weekend. We've got some things we still want to work towards, and do better but hopefully we can stay hungry, work on those things and be even better the next time out."
 
Of the many highlights from the weekend were Sage Hoover's five-plus innings of no-hit work where she struck out a career-high 14 on her way to a Southland Pitcher of the Week honor, Keely DuBois' continued incredible RBI production with seven more on the weekend, 18 in the past seven games moving her atop the league standings, three complete games from three different pitchers and the work of an infield that did not commit an error led by exceptional play at second from Taylor Williams.
 
All of those came together in the 7-1 won on Saturday that sealed the sweep as Bronte Rhoden finished off her complete game in the circle, further solidifying the strength and depth of the pitching staff that had until recently carried the team.
 
"Of course, as a pitcher you want to throw a complete game and if it's going to be your win you want to finish the game," Rhoden said. "But it's so awesome that we do have a big staff and a solid staff and it's nice to know that if one of us is having an off day we know that we have it covered. We have that confidence in who's in the bullpen that day and it really allows you to go out there and put it all on the field."
 
Three more outings without allowing more than two runs, NSU is 16-1 in those games, and holding opponents to a .162 average allows the NSU offense that has seemingly found its stride at the perfect time a chance to do its work.
 
DuBois had five hits, another home run and drove in seven on the weekend, extending her on-base streak to 19 games. Laney Roos has 16 hits in the past eight games and after a 4-for-9 weekend for Williams, the Lady Demons have four players batting over .300 in their first five positions in the lineup.
 
"We've been doing so great offensively and that really uplifts you as a pitcher," Hoover said. "When Keely hit that home run (3-run home run in first game against HBU) I felt some relief and a boost to say, 'let's go, I got this."
 
Hoover threw five innings against Tech in Ruston, striking out nine while allowing just one earned run on three hits for her second win of the season. It was Roos' two-run double in the fifth that was the difference for NSU in the 3-2 win. She drove in all three of NSU's runs in the game.