NATCHITOCHES – There were plenty of similarities between Friday night's first game and Saturday afternoon's second game of Northwestern State's baseball season.
 
For the second straight game, the Demons were unable to overcome a slew of free passes and despite another strong offensive effort fell to Southern Illinois, 14-9, at Brown-Stroud Field on Saturday.
 
"I wouldn't say the exact same scenario as last night," first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "We feel the same way about it in the fact we're really proud of the way the guys competed, the way they fought, proud of the never-say-die attitude. We came back on several occasions. We fixed some of the things we wanted to from (Friday night).
 
"We played error-free baseball. The defense played well. We did a really good job of getting double-digit hits. We talked about putting together quality at-bats. We did that all day. We improved on some things. We have to compete in the strike zone more for the guys who hit the mound tomorrow. We walked or hit 15 guys and eight of them scored."
 
Six Demon pitchers issued a combined 12 walks and hit three Saluki hitters with eight of those coming around to score.
 
None turned out to be bigger than the three Southern Illinois hitters who drew walks off Adam Alexis (0-1) in the seventh inning.
 
Northwestern State carried a 7-5 lead into that inning courtesy of a seven-run fifth inning that featured a trio of multi-run hits – back-to-back, two-run doubles from Rocco Gump and Bo Willis and a three-run home run from Braden Benton that gave the Demons their first lead of the series.
 
Mixed in the Demons' big inning were a trio of walks drawn by Balin Valentine, Samuel Stephenson and Reese Lipoma – all three of whom scored.
 
"You can't always control the results of the inning – seven runs is unbelievable – but stringing those quality at-bats together, we did that," Bertrand said. "Even in the innings where we didn't score, we had quality at-bats. We cut down on the number of strikeouts. A step forward in that direction. We have to figure out a way (Sunday) to bring all the phases of the game together. If we take some strides in the strike zone, we're ready to come out and compete."
 
The seventh-inning walks led to a seven-run inning for the Salukis (2-0), who opened the game with a three-run first inning that included only one hit – a two-run double by Jordan Bach.
 
It was Bach again who was the beneficiary of free baserunners ahead of him in the seventh.
 
After Bennett Etloft's bases-loaded walk tied the game, Bach greeted Tim O'Connor with a two-run single to put Southern Illinois ahead to stay.
 
The Demons again responded with a two-run eighth inning, but Easton Dermody finished the three-inning save to give the Salukis the series victory.
 
Willis and Cole Hill each had two-hit games for NSU while Trey Cutchen paced SIU's 14-hit attack with a three-hit performance.
 
The series concludes Sunday at 12 p.m. Southern Illinois will send right-hander Jake Combs (5-3, 2.97 in 2023) to the mound against Northwestern State right-hander Aidan Newton, who is making his NSU debut.
 
Southern Illinois 14, Northwestern State 9
SIU       301 010 711 – 14 14 0
NSU     000 070 020 – 9 10 0
W – Mike Hansell (1-0). L – Adam Alexis (0-1). S – Easton Dermody (1). 2B – SIU, Mathieu Vallee, Jordan Bach, Anthony Kodama, Trey Cutchen. NSU, Rocco Gump, Bo Willis, James Starnes. HR – SIU, Steven Loden (2), Jake Allgeyer (1). NSU, Braden Benton (1). Highlights: SIU, Vallee 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bach 2-5, 2B, 4 RBIs; Kodama 2-5, 2B, 2 RBIs; Cutchen 3-6, 2B; Allgeyer 2-3, HR, 3 RBIs. NSU, Willis 2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs; Cole Hill 2-4.
Records: Southern Illinois 2-0; Northwestern State 0-2.