NATCHITOCHES – In some ways, Reese Lipoma's redshirt junior season as a whole has been a reminder of how much patience can pay off when paired with consistent work.
 
In particular, the past two-plus weeks have been a reminder of how fickle baseball luck can be.
 
After a March 22 loss to Southeastern, Lipoma was mired in an 0-for-15 funk where every ball he hit – no matter how hard or how well placed – found an opponent's glove.
 
As the Demons (11-22, 4-5) prepare to face Nicholls at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the opener of a three-game Southland Conference series, Lipoma is enjoying life on the flip side, carrying a career-long, 11-game hit streak into the matchup with the defending regular-season and tournament champion Colonels (23-11, 6-3).
 
The series also includes a 6:30 p.m. Saturday start and a 1 p.m. Sunday series finale. The first two games are set to air on ESPN+ while free streaming audio of all three games will be available on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices.
 
"From a baseball standpoint, I tried to keep the same approach," Lipoma said. "I've played this game my whole life, and you don't just abandon it. I was still on the barrel. It wasn't like I was miserably failing. I tried to stick with the same approach, keep my head up and keep going. I treated every at-bat like a new opportunity and tried to win every pitch."
 
A fourth-year junior from Gonzales, Lipoma epitomized the "work while you wait" mantra – one that has manifested itself during his current run in which Lipoma is hitting .488 (21-for-43) with five doubles and eight RBIs.
 
After redshirting in the 2021 season, he appeared in 40 total games in the next two seasons, starting a total of 12. As one of the few returning position players on the NSU roster, Lipoma was being counted on by first-year head coach Chris Bertrand to set the tone.
 
And set the tone he has. Lipoma enters the weekend leading Northwestern State in batting average (.298), hits (39), doubles (7) and runs scored (27). His 21 RBIs are third on the team. All of those numbers top those Lipoma produced in the first two seasons of his collegiate career.
 
As importantly, Lipoma has started all 33 games as the NSU leadoff hitter and center fielder.
 
"It means the world to us to have his presence – his presence in the lineup – and for him to be successful knowing the way he went about that," Bertrand said. "He's become a self-made player. He's one of the guys we look to as a leader, as a leadoff hitter and table-setter. He's a guy you point to and say, 'Look what hard work, look what commitment, look what investment does for you. Look at what overcoming tough times and working while you wait can do.
 
"All the things you want to teach your team about growth and development, Reese is an example. How cool is it that our program has that and gets to benefit from that? You root for him because of the way he went about it. You can look at him and tell your young players and your other people he has earned every single bit of it."
 
Lipoma has not achieved his measure of success on his own.
 
As the longest-tenured player in the NSU program, he has a four-year database of friends and teammates to lean upon and from which to draw inspiration.
 
"I talk to Jeff Elkins (NSU's all-time home run leader) pretty much every day," Lipoma said. "We go over every at-bat. It's nice to have a guy like that who has been around the game and had so much success and failure to keep me even-keeled through the good times and the bad."
 
Lipoma spent his first three years in the program as teammates with Elkins, but his career has better approximated that of a teammate whose path Lipoma knows well.
 
Lipoma played his high school baseball at St. Amant in the greater Baton Rouge area before coming to NSU in the fall of 2020. In the spring of 2021, another St. Amant alumnus got his chance to become Northwestern State's everyday center fielder after spending the better part of three years working in the shadows.
 
In two seasons in that role, Larson Fontenot came away with a share of the school single-game stolen base record, the No. 2 season in school history in hit by pitches and the No. 3 career mark in the latter category while starting a combined 85 games in his final two seasons.
 
That came after drawing 28 total starts in three seasons, including the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season.
 
"When you look at Larson's career, it's easy to see how similar they are," Lipoma said, referencing his own career. "He had his struggles early, and there was a light at the end of the tunnel for him. He worked hard, and I try to work hard. Now it's good to see some success after all that failure."