NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State continues the home portion of its schedule this week with the first of three midweek home games on Wednesday night when it takes on ULM.
 
Wednesday's game, which begins at 6 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+, marks the first trip to Natchitoches for ULM (8-7) since 2021, and just the third meeting between the two former Southland rivals since 2017.
 
The Demons (1-13) enter the midweek matchup after a winless weekend at the Boerner Invitational hosted by UT Arlington, but one where they saw more positive moments from their crop of young players, highlighted by the Sunday finale against the host Mavericks.
 
"I think we finished on a high note," head coach Jenny Fuller said. "Yeah, we left some runners on base but honestly I'm proud of the way we played that game. We had runners on and yes, we've been struggling a little bit offensively so proud to see them put themselves in a position to win."
 
The 2-1 loss to the Mavericks was the fourth one-run game of the season for the Demons and the sixth in which they held their opponent to five runs or fewer. However, it was also the 11^th time they failed to score more than two runs in a game, leading to the tough, low-scoring loss to the talented UTA team.
 
The signs of growth and experience showed as the weekend, at bats and innings progressed.
 
Leadoff batter Sophia Livers now leads the team with a .300 batting average for the season and paces the squad in RBIs as well. The Demons had five extra-base hits in their five games this past week including a pair of home runs from sophomores Aly Delafield and Cameron Curtis.
 
Brooklynn Stohler allowed just four runs on five hits over her final 10.0 innings of work this past weekend in Arlington. She held a UTA team that had scored 16 runs in their previous two games that week scoreless for the final five innings of the Sunday afternoon finale.
 
Stohler is already up to 54.1 innings of work this year and ranks second in the country in games started (10), third in innings pitched (54.1) and fourth in complete games (5) picking up her fifth in the tough-luck loss on Sunday afternoon. She continues to lead the Southland in all of those categories.
 
The Demons have alos played solid defense behind Stohler and the pitchers for most of the season, led by shortstop Camryn Becnel who ranks third in the conference in assists this year with 30. She had six in the finale against UTA and 11 this past week with only one error in 21 total chances.
 
NSU is fifth in the Southland as a team with a .962 fielding percentage.
 
They will have their hands full with a hot Warhawk offense that has led the charge on six straight wins during the Warhawk Invitational this past weekend.
 
Sophomore Meagan Brown hit .588 for the week and now leads the team for the season with a .467 batting average. She is one of four players batting over .400 this season for the Warhawks. As a team ULM is batting .339 on the year and averaging 6.0 runs and 8.7 hits per game. 
 
Despite a pair of shutout pitching performances this past weekend from sophomore Dakota Lake and senior Victoria Abrams, ULM has has team ERA north of six and have allowed the same number of hits to their opponents as the Demons have and only seven fewer runs.
 
NSU will be the fourth Southland team the Warhawks have faced so far this year. After losing the first two games of the season to Lamar, they have won five straight against Houston Christian and Stephen F. Austin, with four of those games coming this past weekend in Monroe. The Warhawks will also play McNeese and Southeastern on this year's schedule and have one more game against the Demons in Monroe on April 2.