HAMMOND – The calendar says February for one more day, but the Southland Conference baseball season is here.
 
Northwestern State opens its 30-game conference slate Friday night at 6 against longtime conference foe Southeastern Louisiana. The game, along with Saturday's 2 p.m. contest and Sunday's 1 p.m. finale, will air on ESPN+. Free streaming audio will be available through www.NSUDemons.com and the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app.
 
This will be the first time since 1993 for Northwestern (8-8) to play a conference game in February. That season, the Demons squared off with then-Northeast Louisiana on Feb. 27 to start Southland play.
 
"For us, it's another circumstance to learn from and figure out how to overcome," second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "If it's a little bit earlier, then call it a little bit earlier, but it's our job to get the ball club ready to play. It's our job to the ball club in a frame of mind to go out and compete. When they say, 'Play ball,' it's Southland Conference play no matter what day it is."
 
The Demons and Lions (7-2) will tangle on the opening weekend of conference play for the second straight season. Last season, Southeastern took two of three games in Natchitoches.
 
This year, the Demons visit Pat Kennelly Diamond at Alumni Field and a trove of familiar faces in Hammond, including current Lions head coach and former Demons skipper Bobby Barbier.
 
Those circumstances have given Bertrand and his staff even more reason to lean into their early-season message of balance.
 
"We've talked about (balance) a lot in the past couple of weeks, but we truly believe in it," he said. "You have to be excited to see your friends, and you want to be excited about being able to compete against men you respect and respect what they have built. There is a level of excitement there, but we have to balance it with having the ball club ready to play Southland Conference baseball."
 
Northwestern's returning lineup was, in a sense, unbalanced entering the year with a plethora of veterans returning.
 
Through the first eight games, a freshman has made his mark both in the field and at the plate. Hudson Brignac has emerged as a key piece for the Demons in his first season of collegiate competition.
 
It has helped to have a dugout full of veterans to guide along Brignac, who made highlight-reel defensive plays in each of the Demons' midweek wins against Southern-New Orleans and Alcorn.
 
Brignac has held his own at the plate, hitting .385 with a pair of RBIs while drawing five walks through the first two weeks of the season.
 
"Once we hit opening day and once we get into the stride of the season, age and class, big guy, small guy, all of that goes out the window," Bertrand said. "It's the guys who are ready for the competition, the guys who will put up their fists and fight. Huddy has done that. You get what you earn and what you deserve. He earned every one of those opportunities."
 
Bertrand credited seniors Reese Lipoma, Samuel Stephenson, Clay Jung and Rocco Gump with helping take Brignac under their collective wing and helping him along.
 
Stephenson, Northwestern's primary second baseman a season ago, is reaping those benefits as well. Having moved to shortstop, Stephenson is settling in defensively while hitting .348 with a pair of home runs and eight RBIs through eight games.
 
Against Alcorn on Wednesday night, Stephenson matched the school single-game record with four walks and scored three runs, giving him a team-leading 15 in that category.
 
"The message, top to bottom with our team and individual players, is about taking your skill set and talents – and Sam has a special talent and a special ability to be a great shortstop in this league and at this level – and mix it with experience and playing clean baseball," Bertrand said.
 
"Sam has done a great job of modeling that. We want to do that with individual players and dot hat as a team. What wins is throwing strikes. What wins is playing great defense. What wins are competitive at-bats and grinding through tough at-bats – making the best use of all 27 outs offensively and defensively. We're trying to get our team, top to bottom, to do that. Seeing Sam have some success doing that teaches everyone else and makes everyone around him better. We know Sam's capable of having the success he's having right now, but what it means to our ball club on a deeper level makes it special."