NATCHITOCHES – On a weekend where part of the program's past and present will be honored, everything the Northwestern State baseball team wants is in front of it as it wraps up Southland Conference play.
 
The Demons host New Orleans at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the opening game of NSU's final Southland series of the year. All three games of the series, which includes Senior Day at 2 p.m. Saturday and a 1 p.m. Mother's Day finale on Sunday, will air on ESPN+.
 
Northwestern State (19-29, 10-11) will be the first team to finish its Southland schedule when it faces the Privateers (27-21, 11-7), who enter the weekend three games behind SLC-leading Lamar. For the Demons, this weekend's series offers a chance to secure its place in the May 22-25 Southland Conference Tournament in Hammond.
 
And it has a chance to do so as the Demons honor the 1994 Southland Conference championship team that set a school record with 45 wins and defeated Illinois State in the Midwest I Regional for the program's first NCAA postseason victory.
 
"When you look at it, not only is a time where we celebrate our alumni, but we also get to celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday and Senior Day in a way where we can honor them for the last Southland Conference weekend of the year," first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "We also get to celebrate the last two days and those guys who graduated and took care of their business academically and have bright futures ahead of them when they're done with the game. There are plenty of things to look forward to the next few days when we get to celebrate great milestones and accomplishments of goals mixed with the fact that the Demons, as far as baseball goes, control their own destiny."
 
NSU will honor nine players – pitchers Dawson Flowers, Tyler Nichol, Tim O'Connor and Will Reed, catchers James Starnes and Bo Willis, outfielders Reese Lipoma and Daniel Young and infielder Cole Hill -- 0during Senior Day ceremonies ahead of Saturday's game.
 
Lipoma and Willis were the only two Demons who entered the year with more than 20 career at-bats at the Division I level and have been mainstays in the lineup.
 
During the Demons' last home series, Willis hit the 100-RBI plateau on the number with a grand slam against HCU on April 26. He is 13 RBIs away from moving into a 10^th-place tie in NSU program history, having reached 101 RBIs in two-plus seasons.
 
As one of the veterans on a newcomer-laden roster, Willis has taken his leadership opportunity and capitalized.
 
"There's been a lot of personal growth on and off the field," said Willis, a Magnolia, Texas, native who transferred to NSU in 2022 from Weatherford College. "I feel like I have had opportunities here, and I've been able to explore my own strengths and weaknesses and capitalize on them. The best part is I can pass that along to the next generation of ball players because of the time I've been here. One of my bigger goals this season was to establish some sort of mentor-student relationship with the younger catchers and guide them along their way. I feel that I wanted to set a base for them in case I want to come back next year and coach them."
 
Flowers is slated to start the series finale, which would be his 12^th start of the season. A senior from Brookhaven, Mississippi, who is in his third season after transferring from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Flowers started one game in his first two seasons and was a key cog in the NSU bullpen those years.
 
In his final collegiate season, Flowers has started 11 games and worked 56 1-3 innings – more than he had in his first two seasons combined.
 
"I wasn't coming into the year expecting that," Flowers said. "Obviously, I wanted to do whatever I could to help the team be successful – whatever role that was. It's just how it's shaken out. It's nice to know my teammates and coaching staff trusted me in giving me that opportunity."
 
The Demons' opportunity comes against a New Orleans team that has become an extremely familiar one for Northwestern State.
 
The teams have met 11 times in the past two seasons – six in 2022 and five a season ago – including a pair of meetings in the 2023 Southland Conference Tournament. Coincidentally, two wins against the Privateers would seal the Demons' bid to this year's postseason event.
 
NSU also can punch its ticket to Hammond with some help from a couple of teams, but the importance of controlling its destiny is not lost on Northwestern State.
 
"At this point, it's a position that puts you in a mentally comfortable place, because you can't ask for anything more than being in control of your destiny or having some of your goals and expectations right there for the taking," Bertrand said. "There's a level of comfort, knowing we have the ability to control it ourselves. That part – and the fact we're playing really good baseball going into it – and building off what has taken place the past two-and-half weeks or so, there's a level of confidence going into that we're close to playing some of our best baseball."

Series Probables:
Friday: New Orleans LHP Colton Mercer (5-4, 3.34) at Northwestern State RHP Chase Prestwich (4-5, 6.97)
Saturday: New Orleans RHP Grant Edwards (4-4, 5.64) at Northwestern State TBA
Sunday: New Orleans RHP Cortez Dennis (2-4, 6.06) at Northwestern State RHP Dawson Flowers (2-4, 6.71)