NATCHITOCHES – A week later than expected, the Northwestern State baseball team jumps into its midweek schedule full force.
 
After freezing weather postponed their Feb. 19 game at ULM, the Demons will start midweek play with two games at Brown-Stroud Field on Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
Northwestern will host Southern-New Orleans at 6 p.m. Tuesday before Alcorn comes to Natchitoches at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Both games will air on ESPN+.
 
The Demons (2-4) come into the back-to-back home games after dropping three straight to No. 24 Troy.
 
"The way we look at it is that it opens up some opportunities for some people to either get back on track if they've been scuffling," second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "It opens up some opportunities for guys to continue to stay hot and in that groove. A five-game week opens up opportunities to get some guys in the ballgame that we might not have gotten in as much."
 
Tuesday's matchup with SUNO marks the first meeting between the Demons and Knights, who were 4-7 ahead of a Monday matchup with Dillard University.
 
SUNO is in its second season of competition after a 17-21 debut mark a season ago.
 
"We have a tremendous amount of respect that for OP (SUNO head coach Olen Parker)," Bertrand said. "They're in a building phase. The job he's done in building it and the type of athletes he's going to bring into Brown-Stroud Field and the brand of baseball they compete with, we're going to have to be ready to play at every turn, and we're going to have to be ready to execute more cleanly."
 
The Demons will send sophomore right-hander Kevin Robinson (0-0, 27.00) to the mound against SUNO and are expected to start junior right-hander Brandon Carter (0-0, 9.82) against Alcorn on Wednesday.
 
The Braves come into the matchup at 0-5 after suffering a three-game sweep at Southeastern Louisiana this past weekend.
 
"They just got done playing Southeastern, who we will play this weekend," Bertrand said. "Once again, it's a tremendous opportunity to compete and lean in a new environment when you mention a first-year head coach (Carlton Hardy) or when you mention roster turnover. They're building for their own league play. They're building to figure out some things about their roster. You're just going to have be ready to compete properly, and we're going to have to commit ourselves to clean execution of baseball, throwing more strikes and being more competitive in the strike zone."
 
The same can be said for the Northwestern offense that has reached double figures in three of its first six games.
 
The Demons have been a bit feast or famine at the plate. In the three games where Northwestern has reached double figures, it averages 13 runs per game. In the other three games, the Demons have been held to a total of seven runs.
 
"We have to create and cash in on opportunities offensively," Bertrand said. "We're going to have to be ready – no matter who's on the other side – to play clean baseball in all three phases. If we do that, then we're going to learn enough for what we can take into Hammond this weekend."