NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team had plenty of chances this past weekend to make its stakeholders proud.
 
With the arrival of Alumni Day in the middle of this weekend's Southland Conference series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Brown-Stroud Field, the Demons will have three more chances to do so in person.
 
The series begins with a 6:30 p.m. Friday first pitch. Saturday's Alumni Day centers around a 2 p.m. game, and the series concludes with a 1 p.m. Friday first pitch. All three games will be streamed on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices. Streaming audio is free while subscription video is available.
 
"It's pretty special," said sixth-year head coach Bobby Barbier, himself an alumnus of the program. "We've changed a lot of things since a lot of them have been here. I'm excited about letting them see our new locker room, the renovations to the field, the bullpen, the things we've done. Hopefully, we're making them proud not just by our play on the field or by how our guys handle themselves but also with the improvements and commitment to constantly improve our facility. It's good for our players to see the guys who have paved the way before them – guys who didn't have nearly as much as what they have and were still able to go out and compete really hard."
 
Northwestern State (12-12, 2-1) was one of three teams to grab road series wins on the opening weekend of Southland play this past weekend, taking the final two games from New Orleans. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (15-12, 2-1) was the only homestanding team to win a Southland series, taking two of three from Incarnate Word.
 
It marks the second straight weekend the Demons will face one of the top teams in what seems to be a balanced conference.
 
"It's going to be tough every weekend," Barbier said. "(Islanders coach) Scott (Malone) has done a really good job. They had a big win at Rice (Thursday) night. They took two of three last weekend and took two of three from Nebraska. They're playing well. It's difficult to make a complete roster in our league at times – to have good starting pitchers and a guy or two in the bullpen who can get you outs and a lineup that looks pretty deep. They're similar to UNO's team. Hopefully, we've learned some things about ourselves and what we can improve on and what we did well – take that ingo a good work week, which we've had so far – before we get after it on Friday."
 
Northwestern State will start the same rotation it has for the first five three-game weekend series this season – left-hander Cal Carver and right-handers Johnathan Harmon and Drayton Brown. Harmon is the reigning Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week after tossing NSU's first nine-inning complete game since April 27, 2019, in the Demons' 2-1 win against New Orleans this past Saturday.
 
Harmon's effort was pivotal to NSU rallying back to take the series, but it was not the only reason.
 
The Demons' defense backed Harmon with a couple of stellar plays before Northwestern State showed it was capable of winning a slugfest, taking advantage of a shifting wind to notch a 16-10 win in the series finale.
 
"We stayed the course," Barbier said. "We got our heart broken on the road on Friday night in the first conference weekend against a really good team. That can be touch. Stay the course. Keep punching. All the things you say, we did that. It shows us the team we can be, and the team we keep working toward being."
 
Series Probables
Friday: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi LHP Zach Garcia (2-1, 1.61) at Northwestern State LHP Cal Carver (3-2, 4.13)
Saturday: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi RHP Hayden Thomas (4-1, 2.78) at Northwestern State RHP Johnathan Harmon (3-2, 1,72)
Sunday: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi LHP Jaime Ramirez Jr. (1-0, 5.67) at Northwestern State RHP Drayton Brown (3-2, 4.02)