NATCHITOCHES – There are furious rallies, and then there are the type of rally the Northwestern State baseball team put together Friday night.
 
Down by 11 runs and one out away from suffering a run-rule loss, the Demons cut New Orleans' lead to two before the Privateers hung on for an 18-15 win at Brown-Stroud Field in the opener of a three-game Southland Conference series.
 
"It's a matter of figuring out how to balance it out," first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "You're proud of the fight and the competitiveness, but at the end of the day, the fact we made it the game we did is good for baseball. It gives you some hope, some momentum and some energy going into tomorrow. It also forces them to use some bullets that maybe if the game is out of hand, they don't have to waste. We did some good things, but balancing the scale means we need to take a look at what we did poorly and get to work fixing that and have a better plan."
 
The Privateers (28-21, 12-7) scored in all nine innings, including a five-run second inning against NSU starter Chase Prestwich (4-6).
 
New Orleans' second-largest inning – a four-run fifth – gave the Privateers a 13-1 lead before the Demons (19-30, 10-12) began to chip away at UNO starter Colton Mercer (6-4), who was staked to the big lead.
 
Four consecutive hits – including RBI singles from Balin Valentine and Braden Benton – cut the lead to 10 before the Privateers answered with a single run in the sixth.
 
The back-and-forth offensive moments continued with Rocco Gump's solo home run in the bottom of the sixth and a two-run UNO seventh that had the Privateers on the verge of handing NSU its first run-rule loss of conference play.
 
Down to their potential final swing and facing an 12-run deficit , the Demons stayed thanks to a run-scoring wild pitch and Hayden Knotts' sinking line drive that right fielder Mitchell Sanford could not glove. Knotts' third of his career-high four hits sliced the deficit to nine and was part of a streak of six Demons who reached base with two outs in what became a seven-run seventh inning.
 
"With our competitiveness, we were able to salvage some really good baseball elements to go into (Saturday)," Bertrand said. "What we have to do is we have to do is a better job of competing in all phases from the jump of the game and not dig ourselves into a hole once again."
 
The hole deepened by a single run in the eighth before Knotts' first career home run at home – a two-run shot – sparked a four-run NSU eighth inning. Knotts finished 4-for-5 with a career-high four RBIs.
 
Privateers reliever Nathan Blasick stranded the tying run at first to end the eighth before working a perfect ninth inning to close out the game.
 
The series continues at 2 p.m. Saturday on Senior Day and Alumni Day where the 1994 Southland Conference championship team will be honored for its 30^th anniversary. Right-handers Grant Edwards (4-4, 5.64) of New Orleans and Tyler Bryan (1-1, 4.26) are scheduled to start.
 
New Orleans 18, Northwestern State 15
UNO    152 141 211 – 18 18 0
NSU     001 021 740 – 15 15 0
W – Colton Mercer (6-4). L – Chase Prestwich (4-6). 2B – UNO, Mitchell Sanford, Miguel Useche, Alexander Saunier, Dalton Hurst, Issac Williams. NSU, Samuel Stephenson, Braden Benton. HR – UNO, Useche (4), Maika Niu (6). NSU, Rocco Gump (6), Hayden Knotts (2). Highlights: UNO, Diego Villescas 3-5, RBI; Sanford 4-5, 2B, 2 RBIs; Useche 3-4, 2B, HR, 6 RBIs; Saunier 2-5, 2B, 3 RBIs; Hurst 2-4, 2B; Williams 2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs. NSU, Reese Lipoma 3-5, RBI; Balin Valentine 2-3, 2 RBIs; Benton 2-4, 2B, 3 RBIs; Knott 4-5, HR, 4 RBIs.
Records: New Orleans 28-21, 12-7; Northwestern State 19-30, 10-12.