NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team needed another big comeback for the second straight day against New Orleans on Saturday afternoon.
 
Unlike the series opener where the Demons nearly erased a 12-run deficit, Privateers right-hander Grant Edwards quieted NSU for eight innings and the New Orleans bats stayed hot, lifting the Privateers to a 14-6 Southland Conference win at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
"On our part, an inability to create any pressure in any phase of the game," first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "Once again, it got away from us really, really quickly. Ten of the 14 runs they scored were with two outs. All of the runs in the six-run, crooked-number (second) inning were with two outs. For us, you mix the inability to shut down some innings with the free bases and defensive miscues and against that type of offense, we dug ourselves a hole once again. That's difficult to come back from."
 
After Tyler Bryan (1-2) set the Privateers (29-21, 13-7) scored six runs with two outs in the second inning to take a lead they never came close to relinquishing.
 
Bryce Calloway's first of two opposite-field home runs started the scoring before the Privateers added four more runs following an error.
 
That was more than enough support for Edwards (5-4), who limited Northwestern State (19-31, 10-13) to four runs across eight five-hit innings.
 
Edwards was at his best once NSU scored in an inning.
 
After allowing Bo Willis' one-out single and Rocco Gump's RBI double in the second, the UNO right-hander retired the next two hitters. Following Reese Lipoma's two-out RBI single in the fifth, Edwards retired the next batter to keep UNO's lead at eight.
 
Daniel Burroway, who had two of the Demons' seven hits, kept the game alive with a seventh-inning home run off Edwards with one out before the next two Demons were retired.
 
Edwards loaded the bases on three straight, one-out hit batters in the eighth inning but allowed only one run on a wild pitch. The Demons managed one hit in nine two-out at-bats against Edwards. Meanwhile, the Privateers were 7-for-17
 
"We had some at-bats where we gave it away from an approach standpoint," Bertrand said. "There was some passiveness. Once again, everything is in front of us tomorrow. We have to do a better job of playing complementary baseball, whichever way it flips first.
 
"We have to do some things offensively to create some pressure when we do find ourselves to score some runs when playing from behind and vice versa. We need to be able to grab some zeroes early in the game tomorrow and be able to generate something so we're not, once again, playing from behind the eight ball."
 
The series concludes Sunday with a 12 p.m. first pitch, which has been moved up because of projected inclement weather. New Orleans' Cortez Dennis (1-2, 6.06) and Northwestern State's Dawson Flowers (2-4, 6.71) are scheduled to start in a matchup of right-handers.
 
New Orleans 14, Northwestern State 6
UNO    061 210 202 – 14 14 0
NSU     010 010 112 – 6 7 1
W – Grant Edwards (5-4). L – Tyler Bryan (1-2). 2B – UNO, Mitchell Sanford, Dalton Hurst 2. NSU, Rocco Gump, Daniel Burroway. HR – UNO, Miguel Useche (5), Bryce Calloway 2 (7). NSU, Burroway (8). Highlights: UNO, Useche 2-4, HR, 2 RBIs; Calloway 3-5, 2 HRs, 3 RBIs; Hurst 4-5, 2 2Bs, RBI; Issac Williams 2-4, RBI. NSU, Gump 2-4, 2B, RBI; Burroway 2-3, 2B, HR, RBI.
Records: New Orleans 29-21, 13-7; Northwestern State 19-31, 10-13.