NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State engineered some more late-game heroics on Tuesday night with seven runs in its final two at-bats to pick up an 8-6 comeback win against Louisiana Tech.
Down 4-1 entering the bottom of the fifth inning, a pinch-hit two-run home run from
Kennedy Reynolds lit the comeback flame as the Demons (17-27) scored seven straight runs, finding a way to the big win on a night filled with gutsy performances.
Runs in each of the first three inning from Louisiana Tech (27-17), including unearned runs for the first two of the game, staked the Bulldogs to a 4-1 lead through three innings of play. NSU manufactured their run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first to briefly tie the game at one before Tech pushed three straight across over the next two innings.
On a night with a squeezed strike zone and multiple arms making their way to the circle for both teams, the Bulldogs seemed fully in control after 12 straight batters were retired by Tech pitching between
Laney Roos' sacrifice fly in the first and the fifth inning.
Starter
Maggie Darr pitched the first two innings, seeing a pair of unearned runs come across before handing over the
Kenzie Seely, who danced around some traffic on the basepaths after a pair of runs scored in the third. She kept the Tech offense off the board however through the fifth inning, giving the offense a chance to stage the comeback.
"The zone felt a little tight tonight and we were having to throw a lot of pitches," Prejean said. "She (Seely) made the pitches that she needed to make when it counted with runners on."
Seely was responsible for stranding seven of the 11 total runners Tech left on base in the game.
Camryn Ford's single in the fifth was the first base runner for NSU since the first inning and she didn't stay on the bases long as Reynolds launched the first pitch she saw down the left field line for the first pinch-hit home run for an NSU player since 2020.
Initially ruled foul by the home plate umpire, a swift review overturned the call and officially began the NSU comeback.
"I just wanted to get a pitch that I could hit well," Reynolds said. "Coach just said to be on time and get your pitch so that's really all I was thinking. I knew it was out but was just really hoping that it wasn't foul. So I was trying not to look at it and just trying to will it fair."
Ryleigh Denton took over in the circle in the sixth and produced the first three-up, three-down inning for the defense, getting the Demons right back to the plate.
Back-to-back one-out singles from Roos and
Ashlyn Walker put the go-ahead run on base in the inning. The Demons used the same hit type they did to produce the comeback win on Saturday against Texas A&M-Commerce again on Tuesday.
Mia Liscano's double to left center brought in the tying and go-ahead run giving the Demons their first lead of the day. Liscano advanced to third on the play and scored three pitches later on an error at short stop.
Reynolds and
Sophia Livers drew back-to-back walks, the only two walks of the game for Tech pitching, to load the bases with still only one out. A bouncing ball up the right side from
Bailie Ragsdale slipped past the second baseman, and after a wild throw, allowed two more runs to score and give the Demons the 8-4 lead.
One more Demon error in the seventh allowed two more unearned runs to cross the plate and bring the tying run to the batter's box, but a ground ball to second, reminiscent of the two the Bulldogs hit in their walk-off win against the Demons a month ago, was picked up for the final out.
"That's a good Louisiana Tech team that we beat," Prejean said. "We didn't have our best stuff in the circle and we didn't have our best defensive performance but we found a way to do it. Now it's getting on a roll and leaving it all on the field over these next two weekends."
The Demons had eight hits in the game from eight different players and scored eight runs from eight different players.
