NATCHITOCHES – The new-look Northwestern State softball team hosts its first games at the new-look Demon Diamond this weekend with the two-day NSU Classic.
 
The Demons welcome Memphis and Jacksonville State to Natchitoches for a round-robin style tournament weekend where each team will play each other two times over the course of Saturday and Sunday. 
 
Due to expected weather conditions in the area on Saturday, the start of the weekend's festivities was moved up three hours from its original 12 p.m. start.
 
The six-game schedule is now set to being at 9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday with the two visitors facing off against each other. NSU will play in the final two games of both days starting at 11:30 a.m. with the final game of both days set for a 2 p.m. start.
 
Only Sunday's games featuring the Demons will be aired live on ESPN+. All games throughout the weekend will have live stats available through nsudemons.com. Tickets for the games are available by visiting nsutickets.com or calling 318-357-4268.
 
NSU enters its first home weekend of the season still in search of its first win after dropping five games at the South Alabama Invitational. Although they were unable to tally a mark in the left column, first-year head coach Jenny Fuller saw the young Demons have several shining moments among the inevitable areas that still need improvement.
 
"This past weekend we had moments with some good things and ones with things we need to work on," head coach Jenny Fuller said. "We expected some growing pains this year so all we can do is work hard, stay positive and go from there.
 
"We talk a lot as a staff about how we can get our players up to speed on the game because they are so young. But that takes time and experience which they don't have yet. So it's a lot of trial by fire right now getting out there and trying different people in different spots in the lineup. Seeing what works and what doesn't and figuring it all out together."
 
Across the five games to open the season, the Demons had all 11 freshmen and all of the 13 total newcomers make their NSU debuts. Of the 50 total spots in the lineup during the five-game weekend, 27 times were one of those spots occupied by a freshman, the most combined starts by freshmen in the country.
 
Pitcher Brooklynn Stohler was among those 27 to make the first starts of her career, that included a pair of complete game outings against Murray State and UIC. Despite a pair of tough-luck losses in both games, the freshman displayed an uncoachable attribute that her former pitcher head coach was more than happy to see.
 
"The biggest thing with her is that she doesn't get rattled," Fuller said of Stohler's demeanor. "If you have a pitcher that is mentally tough out there and doesn't get rattled by little things, they'll end up being pretty good for you. 
 
"And she induces a lot of soft contact. She doesn't give up a ton of hard hits. She's going to give up hits because she's a freshman, but one through nine she was getting weak contact against every team she faced."
 
At the plate the Demons saw five players earn their first career hits this past weekend. Both DJ Lynch and Brynn Daniel hit doubles for their first knock, Daniel doing so in her first career at bat, and Peyton Peck launched a pinch-hit two-run home run against South Alabama for her first career hit. Lynch also homered earlier in that game that at the time gave NSU a 4-2 lead on the Jaguars.
 
Sophia Livers had a pair of multi-hit games and went 4-for-5 at the plate with three runs scored in Saturday's games against Murray State and South Alabama.
 
The game against the Jaguars featured the most hits (8) and runs (6) by the Demon offense of the five games to open the season.
 
"Memphis and Jacksonville State are good teams," Fuller said. "Going against South Alabama and competing with them really can give us a boost of confidence that we can compete with anybody if we can have our hitting, pitching and defense all going together in one game."