SAN ANTONIO – An adjusted schedule awaits Northwestern State for its third road series in what has been an altered state of a Southland Conference baseball season.
 
The Demons open their third conference road series of the year with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Friday at UIW on ESPN+. The series finale is scheduled for 1p.m. Sunsday. All three games will air on ESPN+ with free streaming audio available on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices.
 
Northwestern State (14-23, 6-6) has won each of its first two Southland road series, taking two of three game at McNeese (March 28-30) and at Nicholls (April 12-14). Through four weeks of Southland Conference play, road teams have won 12 of the 16 league series.
 
"It's a conversation worth having," said first-year head coach Chris Bertrand, who is in his eighth season at NSU and in the Southland. "We try not to put too much emphasis into it. There's something to it, but at the same time, it's a circumstance. We try to tell our guys no matter the venue, no matter home or away, no matter what time he says play ball – the weather or whatever – the Demons are going to put up their fists and fight.
 
"We like to focus on that mind-set, but as a coach in this league and as a fan, something's going on. It's a very unique thing. Being that we have a road series coming up this week, we hope it continues."
 
That mind-set has put the Demons at .500 halfway through their Southland schedule as they head to a place where UIW (20-15, 5-4) traditionally has been extremely successful.
 
The Cardinals are 13-5 this season at Sullivan Field although they lost two of three games to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in their lone home SLC series of 2024 thus far.
 
UIW rebounded with a three-game sweep at McNeese this past weekend behind the efforts of Southland Conference Hitter of the Week Drake Beck, who brings a .424 batting average, 10 home runs and 44 RBIs into the series.
 
"You're going to see a team that is very competitive, a team that is very comfortable in their own ballpark," Bertrand said. "Obviously, they bring a more-than-capable offense that is extremely efficient. It's a bat-to-ball type offense. Those guys grind through at-bats. They make themselves tough outs. They put pressure on you."
 
UIW enters the weekend hitting .310 as a team, averaging 8.7 runs per game. In their 18 home games, the Cardinals have scored in double figures 11 times and are averaging 11.4 runs per game.
 
For the Demons to emerge with their third road Southland series win – doing so for the first time since 2018 – there will be a theme for the Demons to follow.
 
"When you have the skills, the capabilities, the talent, it comes down to execution – we prefer the term clean execution," Bertrand said. "We're going to have to throw strikes. We're going to have to play clean defense. We're going to have to do all of those things because we know the quality of the opponent and the experience they bring in all areas of the game."