DENTON, Texas – Northwestern State will put its six game winning streak to the test this weekend in perhaps its most difficult nonconference weekend of the season.
 
The Lady Demons (7-3) travel to North Texas for the North Texas Invitational where they will play two games against the Mean Green, who were ranked in the top 25 just a week ago, and two against Wichita State, who is coming off an NCAA Regional berth from a season ago.
 
Instead of the typical Friday-Saturday setup, NSU plays its first games on Saturday with Wichita State at 11 a.m. and North Texas at 4 p.m. They close the weekend with a Sunday doubleheader starting at 10 a.m., playing Wichita State first once again.
 
There will be no live video for the weekend but stat links are available a www.nsudemons.com.
 
"This weekend is going to be a very big challenge for us," head coach Donald Pickett said. "We can't continue to play up or down to the level of competition. We have to go out there understanding that we're really playing against ourselves more than our opponent. We're trying to play Demon softball and play it the best way we can."
 
That was the challenge Pickett issued his team following a 2-1 win over Grambling in the home opener on Wednesday night. While the Demons won the game, the missed chances to put more runs on the board and not using counts in their favor made for a longer night in the NSU dugout.
 
Wanting to see improvement defensively after the first two weekends, NSU got that first taste in the Grambling game, committing just one error, but making the routine plays look routine and the more difficult plays look easy.
 
Through 10 games, and even within the six-game winning streak, the Demons have seen glimpses of the talent they possess in all phases of the game. The thing the 15-year head coach wants now is to see it all at the same time for a longer time.
 
"Right now we're all around it and not been able to sustain it for a period of time," Pickett said. "That's the thing I know we can do and with as much experience as we have I feel like we will do it but we've got to make that choice and work on that every single day."
 
Against teams like North Texas and Wichita State, every at bat, pitch and defensive play can be the different between a someone reaching base, a run, a win or a loss.
 
The Shockers (8-3) have won each of their past three games in run-rule fashion scoring 10 or more runs in each game. They are led by preseason all-American short stop and leadoff batter Sydney McKinney who is batting an absurd .771 on the season.
 
McKinney has 27 hits in 35 at bats and scored 18 runs already this season and has a 1.143 slugging percentage to boot. Not surprisingly she leads the country in batting average by a healthy margin.
 
After winning their first three games of the Tracy Beard Classis a week ago, North Texas (8-2) were knocked from the ranks of the unbeatens in a 4-0 loss to No. 15 Kentucky before losing to McNeese 4-2 on a Jil Poullard home run in the sixth inning. The Mean Green responded with a 6-0 shutout of Tarleton State in its first midweek game of the year earlier this week.
 
UNT has done a lot of damage this year with the long ball, hitting 13 home runs so far in their 10 games, with seven different players providing contributions.
 
Laney Roos continues to be the hits leader for the Demons, but after a hot streak at the plate from Bailie Ragsdale over the past six games, NSU now has four players hitting over .300 on the season. 
 
All three pitching staffs have multiple players with sub-1.80 ERAs on the early season.