MONROE – The Northwestern State baseball team is set to play ULM in a two-game, home-and-home series beginning Tuesday in Monroe.
 
Appropriately for this series, Mother Nature again is threatening to intervene. The teams were scheduled to meet Feb. 22 in Natchitoches before rain pushed that matchup back one day and then rained out Feb. 23, moving that one back to March 9.
 
The forecast for Tuesday's game, set for a 6 p.m. start, again features a heavy chance of rain in northeast Louisiana. Wednesday's game at Brown-Stroud Field also is set to start at 6 p.m. Streaming audio is available for both games on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices. Subscription video is available online and through the app for Wednesday's home game.
 
"We hope we get to play," head coach Bobby Barbier said. "We need to play. The great thing about our sport is you can turn around and play again right away when things haven't gone great. When you do it the right way, that should help you not hurt you. I think this team will do it the right way. Hopefully, the rain holds off and we get a couple of games in."
 
Neither the Demons (3-8) nor the Warhawks (1-9) are off to the starts they hoped for when the 2022 season began.
 
Northwestern State has dropped seven straight since defeating Oklahoma, 4-2, on Feb. 25. ULM has lost nine in a row since a 1-0 win against Southern Illinois on opening night Feb. 18.
 
"It looks like they haven't pitched it quite like they wanted to so far, and we're kind of the opposite," Barbier said. "We haven't hit like we want to. Both of us have a fair amount of new pieces. When you have new pieces in your lineup and on your staff, you're trying to see what works and how it fits together. Sometimes, it takes a while to do that. I don't expect anything but a really good team across the way."
 
The Demons' strong start to the season on the mound continued this past weekend with each of the Demon starters turning in a quality start.
 
Cal Carver, Johnathan Harmon and Drayton Brown all went at least six innings and permitted two or fewer earned runs. With all three going that deep – Harmon pitched seven innings, the longest by a Demon starter this year – it relieved the stress on NSU's bullpen entering the Demons' second straight five-game week.
 
The Demons used just seven pitchers on the weekend as Dawson Flowers (three innings), Andrew Cossio (1 1-3), Ethan Francis (one) and Cameron Taylor (2-3) covered the remaining six innings across the three games against Nebraska and UT Arlington.
 
"We got three good starts, and the relievers who came out of the bullpen threw the ball really well," Barbier said. "We've still got some relievers we really like who didn't get a chance to pitch that, hopefully, we can get out there."
 
As the Demons get set for their second straight week of a home-and-home series against a state rival, Barbier has one word on his mind.
 
"It's about responding," he said. "Nobody foresaw the start we've had. The first weekend, we win two out of three, and we beat Oklahoma on Friday, and everybody thinks we're the Yankees. I promise you, we're not the Yankees and it's not as bad as it's been the last five to seven games. There are a bunch of things we have to do better. We've got to do some of the little things better. If you take care of those little things, those one- or two-run games flip for you.
 
"This team will respond. They're a bunch of men who will stick together. Our game is about being tough and sticking through these hard times so you can make it out of it. When you do, it makes you stronger for it."