NATCHITOCHES – The big hits the Northwestern State baseball team delivered Saturday did not show up Sunday afternoon.
 
Meanwhile, visiting UT Arlington made their opportunities count.
 
The Mavericks took an early lead for the second straight game and held on this time, defeating the Demons 5-2 at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
"I thought it was a clean game for both sides," seventh-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "Both teams played pretty good defense. Both starters threw the ball well. It took us a full time through the lineup to figure him out. We've got to get that done a little sooner.
 
"We have some guys who are banged up and some guys who haven't been in there a lot. I thought they played well. They got the hit when it was second and third, and we didn't. That's the way the game goes sometimes."
 
The Mavericks (4-7) clinched the series thanks in part to a three-hit, three-RBI day from freshman Ryan Black.
 
With UTA leading 1-0, Black capped a fast start to the third inning with a two-run double off Demon starter Drayton Brown (0-2) to extend the lead to 3-0.
 
Brown settled in after Black's double, retiring the next nine hitters before Black's leadoff single in the sixth inning.
 
By then, the Demons had scratched out single runs in the fourth and fifth against UTA starter Caden Noah, who minimized the damage in each inning.
 
Daunte Stuart's leadoff single in the fourth was NSU's first hit against Noah, who retired eight of the first nine Demons he faced with Broch Holmes reaching on a second-inning error by third baseman Ben Lumsden.
 
Holmes knocked in Stuart with a fourth-inning groundout following Stuart's single and Michael Dattalo's double that put runners on second and third with nobody out before Noah wiggled out of further trouble. The Demons finished the day 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position with all five at-bats coming in the fourth and fifth innings.
 
A similar situation unfolded in the fifth when Caleb Castle led off with a single and scored on Jake Haze's double one batter later. Haze did not move off second base as reliever Matt Novis (1-1) came into record the final out of the inning and maintain UTA's one-run lead.
 
"You've got to give them credit," Barbier said. "We've got to continue to play clean and get good starting pitching, which we've done. The big hits will come."
 
Black added an insurance run in the eighth with a solo home run, his second homer of the series.
 
The Demons return to action Wednesday when they travel to Monroe to face ULM. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. from Warhawk Field.
 
UTA 5, Northwestern State 2
UTA       012 001 010 – 5 8 1
NSU       000 110 000 – 2 6 0
W – Matt Novis (1-1). L – Drayton Brown (0-2). S – Connery Peters (3). 2B – UTA, Ryan Black. NSU, Jake Haze, Michael Dattalo. HR – UTA, Black (2), Garrison Berkley (1). Highlights: UTA, Black 3-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBIs; Berkley 2-4, HR, 2 RBIs. NSU, Caleb Castle 2-4.
Records: UTA 4-7, Northwestern State 5-6.