NATCHITOCHES – With just two weeks left in the 2024 regular season, Northwestern State has officially entered crunch time.
 
The Demons (16-27, 4-14) picked up an important Southland Conference series win this past weekend as they jockey for a spot in the upcoming tournament. Before they turn their attention to the even more important conference series this weekend in Houston, they must first deal with a talented in-state foe.
 
NSU hosts Louisiana Tech on Tuesday night at the Demon Diamond beginning at 6 p.m. in a game that will require as much focus and execution to win as any in the upcoming pressure-packed series.
 
"Louisiana Tech is a really good team, and this is a great opponent for us to have ahead of a very important weekend," head coach Lacy Prejean said. "It's an in-state opponent too, so you know it will already be a competitive game. It came down to the seventh inning when we played them earlier and so hopefully us being home this time can give us that little bit of an edge. We're winding down to the end of the season, so everything is important. Everything matters."
 
When the two teams met over a month ago in Ruston, the Bulldogs rallied with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to pick up their third straight win in the series. A two-out walk, one of seven in the game by NSU pitching, extended the inning for the eventual infield single that scored the winning run.
 
The win by the Bulldogs was the latest in a string of tight games between the two teams over the past three years. There have been three games in the past six decided by one run and four in the last seven decided by three or less.
 
NSU played two more one-run affairs this past weekend against A&M-Commerce, upping their total to 14 for the season, surpassing their total of 12 from a year ago. Three of their last six conference games have been decided by one run over the past two weekends.
 
The frequency of close games and critical moments increase during the final weeks of the season. The Demons have produced late in games the past two weekend with 11 runs scored in the sixth or seventh innings of the past six games. That includes the three-run sixth inning rally that propelled them to the first conference series win of the season on Saturday. 
 
Three doubles and an RBI single in the inning brought in all three runs, the final of which on a two-out wall banger from Ashlyn Walker to give the Demons the lead. The trio of two-baggers in the inning were the final of four in the game and nine total extra base hits on the weekend for NSU.
 
Freshman Sophia Livers accounted for three multi-bag hits with her first career doubles, one in games one and three and her first career triple in game two. She totaled eight hits in nine at-bats on the weekend to earn the first hitter of the week award for NSU this year.
 
"Just so proud of her," Prejean said. "She does the right thing all the time and works hard. She's earned it. When good things happen to people that do the right thing it's so great to see. Her teammates love her. She's fun to be around. She brings energy and just a fireball out there."
 
The Demons hit .313 this past weekend, boosted by Livers .889 performance, their best single week average of the season. They are averaging more than 20 hits per series over the past three weekends as they take on a Tech pitching staff that leads C-USA in ERA (2.63) and has third lowest opponent batting average (.256).
 
NSU had five hits against Tech in the first meeting.