NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team's six-game tour of the Sun Belt Conference kicks into high gear this weekend when the Demons return home to face Troy.
 
The visiting Trojans will bring one of the nation's top offenses to Brown-Stroud Field for the three-game set, which features a pair of 6:30 p.m. starts Friday and Saturday and a 1 p.m. Sunday series finale. All three games will air on ESPN+.
 
"The offense and ball club that (head coach) Skyler (Meade) will bring in here will be a tremendous test," first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said of the 9-1 Trojans, who rank 13^th nationally in runs per game at 11. "We're looking forward to it. We know the challenge. We know how difficult it's going to be, but we're looking forward to it because we get to test ourselves."
 
Northwestern State (2-7) continues to search for a complementary brand of baseball that will deliver a return to the win column.
 
After a rough first weekend on the mound, the Demons took strides forward during the four-game weekend set in Baton Rouge a week ago. Following a weekend in which NSU walked 37 Southern Illinois hitters, Demon pitchers issued 18 walks in four games against Northern Illinois and Stony Brook.
 
With a newcomer-laden staff that saw 12 different pitchers make their Division I debuts against Southern Illinois, the Demons have seen incremental progress during the first nine games of the season.
 
In NSU's 14-4 loss to UL Lafayette on Wednesday night, the Demon bullpen got a combined four shutout innings from freshman right-hander Kevin Robinson and junior right-hander Adam Alexis. Robinson's two scoreless frames came in his NSU debut.
 
"We made some strides in a bunch of different areas," Bertrand said. "We're making some strides with some players offensively and even some guys who aren't having the most success right now, we're learning. I'm proud of that."
 
Junior right-hander Chase Prestwich (1-1, 8.64) embodied the step-forward process for the Demons from Week 1 to Week 2.
 
Prestwich backed up a 2 1-3-inning outing on Opening Day against Southern Illinois with Northwestern State's first quality start of the season against Stony Brook. Prestwich limited the Seawolves to six hits in six one-run innings to earn his first victory of the season and his first as a weekend starter in his career.
 
That followed Dawson Flowers' career-long 4 2-3 innings against Northern Illinois this past Thursday in just the second start of his career. Flowers will start Saturday's game, making the first weekend start of his three-year Demon career.
 
"Process-oriented blueprints," Bertrand said. "One of the things we're proud of is when you're able to look past the results and you have perspective, we talked to the pitching staff about what a great job they did throwing more strikes and competing within the strike zone from Week 1 to Week 2. Now, how do we take our game to another level in Week 3? The answer is in pitch execution. The challenge after Week 1 was strikes. Check. Now the challenge is making effective, quality pitches. Doing that takes the game to a higher level."
 
Series Probables
Friday: Troy RHP Grayson Stewart (0-0, 6.97) at Northwestern State RHP Chase Prestwich (1-1, 8.64)
Saturday: Troy LHP Logan Ross (2-0, 3.00) at Northwestern State RHP Dawson Flowers (0-0, 4.91)
Sunday: Troy RHP Clete Hartzog (2-0, 0.96) at Northwestern State RHP Dylan Marionneaux (0-1, 1.29)