LAKE CHARLES – Daniel Burroway has developed a habit of delivering late-game home runs for the Northwestern State baseball team.
 
His latest may have been his biggest.
 
Burroway snapped a tie with a two-out, ninth-inning grand slam Friday afternoon, capping a five-run rally and lifting Northwestern State to a 6-2 Southland Conference victory against McNeese to even the series at Joe Miller Ballpark.
 
"There's not enough praise to go around in terms of the way we were able to garner that win and the way in which we grew as a ball club today," said first-year head coach Chris Bertrand, who picked up his first road win as the Demon skipper. "You can't say enough about the performance of (starting pitcher) Chase Prestwich and the way he threw the ball. What a gritty, gutsy performance he had. You can't say enough about the way Caleb Bunch backed him up. Burroway, what a tremendous clutch swing and learning from at-bat to at-bat and from game to game. Not enough praise for him."
 
The grand slam was Burroway's fourth home run of the season – all of which have come since March 17 at Louisiana Tech – and his second go-ahead home run in the eighth inning or later, joining his two-run shot in the eighth inning against Southeastern this past Saturday.
 
This time it came as part of a game-sealing rally that gave the Demons (8-19, 2-3) their first win this season when trailing after eight innings.
 
"I just got the foot down on time and put a good swing on a ball in the zone," said Burroway, who went 2-for-2 off reliver Daelan Caraway (1-1). "I saw a ball up and put a good swing on it and let it go. We'd been putting good swings on the ball all game. If you keep doing that, they'll fall eventually."
 
On a day where the wind was howling out to left field consistently, Prestwich and Bunch (1-0) kept the Cowboys (13-11, 1-1) off balance at the plate throughout.
 
Pitching on the mound where he closed Northwestern State's first Southland Conference Tournament win in five years this past May, Prestwich retired the first 13 hitters he faced and no-hit the Cowboys for 5 2-3 innings.
 
In that time, the Demons collected seven hits but led only 1-0 after Rocco Gump's second two-out RBI single of the series.
 
The first hit Prestwich allowed was a game-tying home run to Cooper Hext with two outs in the sixth inning – part of a stretch where three straight Cowboys reached base before Prestwich got Conner Westenburg to ground out and maintain the 1-1 tie.
 
Bunch followed Prestwich with a scoreless seventh inning before an errant pickoff throw with Hext on first set up Elliot Hebert's two-out single that put the Cowboys ahead 2-1.
 
With Caraway attempting to navigate the final eight outs, the Demons broke through against the right-hander who had held opponents to a 2-for-25 mark in his first eight innings of the season.
 
Making his first start since Feb. 27, Braden Benton coaxed a leadoff walk after falling behind 0-2 in the count. One batter later, pinch-hitter Daniel Young singled for his fourth hit of the weekend. Young's pinch hit came after he left Thursday's game after being hit in the face on a throw.
 
Reese Lipoma drew a walk to load the bases before Samuel Stephenson singled off Caraway's glove to tie the game. Caraway retired Bo Willis, who doubled off him in the eighth inning, before Burroway took a 1-1 pitch out to left center for the Demons' first grand slam since Daunte Stuart hit one at HCU on April 16, 2023.
 
Bunch closed out his three-inning appearance with a scoreless ninth to square the series.
 
"It would have been easy after those guys took the lead for our ballclub to fall into a woe-is-me situation with everything we've been through," Bertrand said. "They didn't. They continued to fight. They continued to scratch. Every time the bell rings, my guys put their fists up and fight. You're looking at the proudest guy in the world, not just because of the win, but because of the way we went about it."
 
The series concludes at 2 p.m. Saturday. Senior right-hander Dawson Flowers (1-1, 6.04) takes the mound for Northwestern State against McNeese left-hander Alexis Gravel (0-1, 4.29).
 
Northwestern State 6, McNeese 2
NSU     000 001 005 – 6 14 1
McNeese         000 001 010 – 2 6 0
W – Caleb Bunch (1-0). L – Daelan Caraway (0-1). 2B – NSU, Bo Willis, Daniel Burroway, Rocco Gump, Hayden Knotts. HR – NSU, Burroway (4). McN, Cooper Hext (2). Highlights: NSU, Reese Lipoma 2-4; Willis 2-5, 2B; Burroway 2-5, 2B, HR, 4 RBIs; Gump 2-5, 2B, RBI. McN, Hext 2-4, HR, RBI; Elliot Hebert 2-4, RBI.
Records: Northwestern State 8-19, 2-3; McNeese 13-11, 1-1.