NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Northwestern State will reunite with an old flame on Tuesday night in its first midweek action of the season.
 
For the first time since they left the Southland Conference three years ago, NSU (2-3) and Stephen F. Austin (0-3) will meet on the softball diamond in the first of two home-and-home doubleheaders scheduled this season.
 
Prolonged rain on opening weekend across Texas have pushed the start of Tuesday's double dip back from the original 3 p.m. start to a 5 p.m. first pitch with the second game coming 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first. 
 
Both games will air on WAC International, a free streaming service for fans after account creation.
 
The Demons enter the game after alternating wins and losses through their first five games on opening weekend. The showed flashes of a dynamic and aggressive offense that is still finding its early-season footing that was backed up by high-quality pitching.
 
In the final four games of the weekend the NSU staff of Kenzie Seely, Maggie Darr, Ryleigh Denton and Aly Delafield did not allow more than two earned runs in any of those games. They pitched their way to a 1.55 ERA over the final four games but suffered a pair of close, low-scoring losses.
 
"I'm proud of the whole pitching staff and how they performed those last few games," head coach Lacy Prejean said. "They gave us an opportunity to win and that's all you can ask for from them. Unfortunately, we weren't able to capitalize on the momentum they gave us. That's something we're working on and it's only going to make us better. We have to realize that we need to take advantage of those one-run, close games and be able to win them." 
 
The Demons lost two one-run games on opening weekend, a 2-1 loss to Creighton and a 1-0 game against Kennesaw State. It took 28 games a year ago for them to drop two one-run affairs, with four wins by that margin during that time.
 
Both Seely and Darr had outings of 5.0-plus innings allowing one earned run each with both taking a hard-luck loss in those games. Delafield picked up her first career win in the circle, in the same game she got her first career hit, by going the final 4.0 innings, after a quality start from Ryleigh Denton, and not allowing a run with just two hits.
 
She was one of three freshmen to get their first career hits on opening weekend.
 
Elsewhere at the plate, four players produced multi-hit games on the weekend with Tristin Court turning in a 3-for-3 day with a pair of doubles against UTSA, both career highs for the senior third baseman. NSU had seven extra-base hits through the first five games including a 2-run triple from freshman Mia Liscano and a 2-run home run from Ashlyn Walker.
 
The bulk of those hits came in the 8-2 win over UTSA and the 6-3 win over Southern Illinois as NSU went 6-for-19 with runners in scoring position in their two wins. They went 0-for-9 in those situations in the one-run losses.
 
The Demons will look to capitalize on those situations when they come against the Ladyjacks who allowed 21 earned runs on 22 hits in their three games at Sam Houston's Bearkat Invitational to open the season. Their opponents, Wichita State and UNLV, combined to hit .324 off five different SFA pitchers.
 
The Ladyjacks won the most recent meeting between the two teams, a 4-1 final in the second game of the 2021 SLC Tournament.