NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State continued its winning ways on Tuesday with another complete team effort with a 6-2 win against in-state foe Louisiana Tech, to take both games of the season series with the Lady Techsters.
The Lady Demons (21-12, 3-0 SLC) got their fourth straight complete game pitching effort in the circle and the second in four days for freshman
Sage Hoover who struck out 11 more after her 14-strikeout performance against Houston Baptist on Friday.
"She can do those kinds of things," head coach
Donald Pickett said. "She's great in the circle and she's a competitor. She came out a did a great job of setting the tone early and was able to hold them down. Really looking for big things from her the rest of the year."
Hoover struck out the first three batters she faced and retired the first eight in a row before allowing a hit. Her only blemish came in the top of the fourth after she hit a batter and allowed a two-run home run to left with no outs. She struck out the next two and only allowed a pair of hits the rest of the way.
The home run by the Lady Techsters (20-14) answered a two-run shot off the bat of
Kat Marshall that opened the scoring in the bottom of the second, her sixth homer of the season.
NSU wasted no time answering the runs with two of its own in the bottom of the inning. Keely DuBois extended her on-base streak to 20 games with a solo home run to left to put the Lady Demons back on top 3-2 two batters into the frame.
After a walk and throwing error put another potential run at second base,
Alexis Perry stepped into the box for her second at bat of the game in her first start of the season after missing the first two months of the season rehabbing from offseason surgery.
"It felt really good.," Perry said about being back out on the field. "I had a big surgery about 10 months ago and thought it was going to be a year before I could come back but seeing how these girls have been playing I said, 'man I have to get back there.' It felt really good to be back out there again tonight."
Perry made two pinch-hit appearances over the weekend at HBU and flied out to center in her first trip earlier in the game. After a
Vivica Hernandez pinch ran at second base, the time for Perry's first hit and RBI had to come in that moment. She drove the first pitch she saw right back up the middle allowing Hernandez to score easily and give NSU the 4-2 lead.
"I was able to get some feedback from my teammates on what they had seen in their at bats and just taking everything in," Perry said. "Went up there and knew I had to do a job in that moment. LA Tech is always a big game for us and it's going to give us a lot of momentum going into Nicholls."
The Lady Demons didn't look back adding two more runs in the bottom of the fifth on a passed ball and an RBI ground out by
Maggie Black that made it a near insurmountable 6-2 lead with the way Hoover and the NSU defense were performing in the top halves of the innings.
Black made a sliding grab near the backstop and even Hoover made a diving grab just outside the circle in the top of the sixth to put an exclamation point on the second win against the Lady Techsters this season.
"We're starting to get a little more balanced the last couple of weeks and playing pretty well," Pickett said. "We kind of had a sluggish day at practice on Monday and we came out a little flat and I challenged them afterwards and they responded in a great way tonight.
"We had energy and were able to keep pressure on them when we were at the plate, Sage did a great job and we made plays on defense. We're doing a lot of good things here and we've just got to stay hungry."
NSU continues its four-game home stand with a weekend series against Nicholls beginning with Friday's doubleheader starting at 4 p.m.
