NATCHITOCHES – A soaked field that needed all hands on deck to make it playable proved to be home sweet home for the Northwestern State baseball team Monday afternoon.
 
After working the field into playing shape, the Demons turned in a complete performance to salvage the final game of a three-game Southland Conference series against New Orleans in run-rule fashion, defeating the visiting Privateers, 13-2, in seven innings.
 
"To me, that's a Demon-type of win on a Demon-type of day on a Demon piece of land," first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "You wake up at 7 in the morning and you push water. Our guys were up to their elbows in mud, and they come out and perform like that. This is a special place, and it takes a special type of player. We talk about never flinching, and we talk about adversity. I couldn't be any more proud of them."
 
Senior right-handed pitcher Dawson Flowers (3-4) was among the first Demons to arrive at the field. After doing his part of the grounds work, Flowers delivered his third quality start of the season, holding New Orleans (29-22, 13-8) scoreless for five innings.
 
Flowers did not allow more than one Privateer on base at a time until the sixth inning – at which point the Demon offense had built a 9-0 lead.
 
New Orleans had scored 32 runs in Friday's and Saturday's first two games of the series, but managed four hits in six innings against Flowers, who allowed two runs in the sixth inning but avoided further trouble with help from a 5-4-3 double play.
 
"Clay Jung and I were on the way to the field, and he said, 'Let's just start working,' so we did," Flowers said. "When things like this happen, it's every man up. Pitch in and do whatever it takes. We turned a couple of double plays. If they hit a ball hard, our guys made a play. Rocco (Gump) was bodying balls up all day. Sam (Stephenson) and (Hayden) Knotts were flipping in the middle, and Burr (Daniel Burroway) made some big plays for us. It was an all-around team win."
 
While Jung delivered the final blow – a three-run, pinch-hit home run to end the game – it was senior designated hitter Bo Willis who fittingly began Monday's offensive barrage
 
Willis' leadoff home run in the second inning against Cortez Dennis (1-3) put the Demons (20-31, 11-13) ahead to stay. He added a two-run double in a seven-run third inning, continuing his career-long tormenting of New Orleans pitching.
 
In his three seasons at Northwestern State, Willis is 21-for-44 (.477) with four doubles, four home runs and 17 RBIs against the Privateers.
 
"With some teams, you feel more comfortable against their pitching," Willis said. "It's hard to explain. Baseball's baseball. I just try to go in with the same approach I have against everyone else. It just tends to work out against that pitching staff."
 
Willis' blast was one of three home runs the Demons hit off a pair of New Orleans pitchers as Colin Rains capped the Demons' seven-run third inning with a three-run shot off Chris Olivier for Rains' third home run of the season and first at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
Willis and Rains each had three hits as the Demons pounded out 13 in six-pus innings. It was Rains' third three-hit game in his past four games, dating to the May 5 series finale at Lamar.
 
After the Privateers scratched out the pair of runs against Flowers in the sixth, the Demons finished things with a two-out flurry in the seventh against Olivier, who retired the first two batters of the inning before walking Burroway.
 
Rains and Knotts followed with singles as Burroway scored on Knotts' second hit of the game. Jung capped the rally with the Demons' first pinch-hit home run since Broch Holmes connected on a pinch-hit home run against New Orleans on May 25, 2023, at the Southland Conference Tournament.
 
"Bo, individually, what a tremendous job, and we can be proud of that," Bertrand said. "What our team and our players can take from what Bo does, we're going to use it this weekend, and we're going to use it at the conference tournament."
 
With the win, the Demons have clinched a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament from May 22-25 in Hammond.
 
The Demons return to action Thursday when they host Stephen F. Austin in the opener of the final three-game series of the regular season. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
Northwestern State 13, New Orleans 2
UNO    000 002 0 – 2 4 0
NSU     017 100 4 – 13 13 0
W – Dawson Flowers (3-4). L – Cortez Dennis (1-3). 2B – NSU, Samuel Stephenson, Bo Willis. HR – NSU, Willis (6), Colin Rains (3), Clay Jung (5). Highlights: NSU, Reese Lipoma 2-4; Willis 3-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBIs; Rains 3-4, HR, 3 RBIs; Hayden Knotts 2-4, RBI.
Records: New Orleans 29-22, 13-8; Northwestern State 20-31, 11-13.