NATCHITOCHES – Gray Rowlett had waited a long time for the moment he had Friday night.
 
Rowlett delivered in the clutch, legging out a walk-off fielder's choice, to lift Northwestern State to a 4-3 Southland Conference baseball victory against Houston Baptist at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
"I've never been able to walk off a game," Rowlett said. "That's something I've wanted to do for a while. I had my opportunity. The only thing I thought was, 'You need to hit the ball. It doesn't matter where it goes. Just get the barrel to the ball.'"
 
With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, Rowlett pulled a ground ball to Huskies shortstop Diego Davila's right. Davila made a long throw to Braden Sanford at second base, but the 6-foot-5 Rowlett beat the return throw to lift the Demons (18-19, 7-6) to their second straight walk-off conference win at home.
 
In NSU's most recent home conference game, Bryce Holmes' 10^th-inning home run gave the Demons a 1-0 win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
"Those are exciting, aren't they?" sixth-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "It was a good Friday-night game. Both starters pitched really well, got deep into the game. We had a plan of stretching Gus (Collins) out if we had a chance to win the game tonight. It worked out perfectly."
 
Collins (3-0) notched his second win in four days, working three innings of one-run relief of starter Cal Carver, who turned in a quality start of six innings of three-hit ball, allowing two runs and striking out five.
 
A sophomore right-hander, Collins surrendered a one-out home run to Logan Letney in the seventh inning that gave Houston Baptist (14-25, 7-6) its first lead of the game.
 
Almost immediately, the Demons answered after Collins kept it a one-run game.
 
Jake Haze led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and took second on a wild pitch. Larson Fontenot's grounder moved Haze to third before Cam Sibley tied the game with a sacrifice fly on an 0-2 count.
 
"We executed well late in the game after they took the lead," Barbier said. "We kept pressure on them. It was good to see us grab it back when it got away from us."
 
Given another chance, Collins did the same, retiring the final five batters he faced, just as he did in Tuesday night's win against LSU-Alexandria.
 
Collins' 1-2-3 top of the ninth set the stage for the Demons' one-out rally that began with a Haze walk off Javan Smitherman (1-1) before Fontenot took his 33^rd career hit by pitch, which moved him into a tie for fifth place with Brandon Morgan on NSU's all-time list.
 
Sibley reached on an error by Brennan Bales at first base, who could not handle a check-swing grounder, before Rowlett hooked his game winner toward the left side to extend the Demons' home winning streak to seven games and conjure a little more Brown-Stroud Field magic.
 
Dating to the final home series of 2021, four of the Demons' last six conference wins at home have been walk-off victories.
 
"Being at the B-Stro, there's something about it," Collins said. "We haven't put our thumb on it yet, but when we're here, we really get after it."
 
The series continues Saturday at 2 p.m. with a matchup of right-handers. Johnathan Harmon (4-4, 3.15) takes the mound for the Demons against HBU right-hander Jared Burch (1-2, 4.24).
 
Northwestern State 4, Houston Baptist 3
HBU       000 101 100 – 3 5 2
NSU       010 101 101 – 4 7 1
W – Gus Collins (3-0). L – Javan Smitherman (1-1). 2B – HBU, Brennan Bales, Jake Miller. NSU, Gray Rowlett, Jeffrey Elkins. HR – HBU, Logan Letney (2).
Records: Houston Baptist 14-25, 7-6; Northwestern State 18-19, 7-6.