Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 MOBILE, Ala. – A windy day at the park led to big swings for and against Northwestern State on Saturday afternoon.
 
Two blasts against Murray State in the opener propelled the Racers to a 10-2 win before three long balls by South Alabama were enough to beat the two from the Demons in an 11-6 loss in game two.
 
 "I'm really proud of our team for competing the way they did today, especially in that second game against South Alabama," head coach Jenny Fuller said. "With them being a regional team last year our goal was to compete and fight and that's what we did."
 
For the second game in a row against the Racers, it was the Demons that took the early lead.
 
After a second-inning run put NSU ahead on Friday, it was a first-inning base hit that put the Demons up on Saturday. Sophia Livers dumped her first of two hits in the game into shallow right to start the Demon half of the inning.
 
After a pair of outs and a pair of hit batters, Livers stood at third with the bags full of Demons for freshman catcher Ary Garcia Santana. She bounced a ball of the third base bag and up the line for her first career hit and RBI to put the Demons on the board.
 
Her hit was the only one of the day for the Demons with the bases loaded in four total plate appearance in that situation in the game. 
 
Livers brought in a run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth with the bags full for the second run, as the Demons left seven runners on base in the game.
 
The second Demon run came after a pair of crooked numbers from the Racers in the third and fourth inning, spearheaded by a pair of long balls. Murray State's Ailey Schyck hit three-run home runs in back-to-back at bats, the second of which broke the game open to an 8-1 lead through three innings.
 
The Demons had at least one hit in each of the first four innings with a pair of multi-hit frames and four free passes with a walk and three hit by pitches creating traffic on the bases throughout the game.
 
Four total players earned their first career hits in the game including a double from DJ Lynch that set up NSU's second run.
 
In the circle freshman Kaymie Chandler threw the final 3.1 innings allowing two runs on three hits and picking up her first career strikeout in the process.
 
For the third time in three games the Demons took an early lead on their opponent, turning a pair of first-inning walks into a pair of runs.
 
After the first three batters of the game reached on said walks and an infield error, Savannah Coleman gave the Demons a one-run lead on a sacrifice fly to right. That was immediately followed by DJ Lynch's second hit of the day, an RBI single to left, that put NSU up 2-0 five batters into the game.
 
The lead only lasted three batters into the bottom of the inning however, as South Alabama tied things on a two-run home run to left center, turning Jaguar Field into a band box the rest of the night.
 
USA's long ball was the first of five home runs hit in the games, three from the Jaguars and two from a pair of Demon freshmen.
 
In her second trip to the plate, Lynch pummeled a drop ball over the left field fence for a two-run blast to put the Demons back on top 4-2 in the third inning, driving in another run that reached on a walk.
 
"She was looking good in the cages so we wanted to give her a chance," Fuller said. "She took advantage of her opportunities and that led to more opportunities, so we're really proud of her."
 
The Jags picked up a run in the third to pull within one, and took the lead in the fourth on their second long ball of the game, a three-run job to left. A two-run blast in the fifth help stretch their lead to 9-4.
 
The Demons engineered a two-out rally in the sixth that led to their second dinger of the evening. Livers singled to center for her second hit of the game and fourth of the day, to extend the inning. Peyton Peck's first career hit, coming in a pinch-hit opportunity, left the yard down the left field line on the third pitch she saw.
 
"Those hits have the ability to give us a lot of momentum," Fuller said. "We can ride that to tomorrow's game against UIC. We had big at bats from DJ and Peyton, both freshmen, so I'm really proud of them for coming through in those situations."
 
NSU finished with eight hits, the most in a game this year, with all six runs coming via the RBI. They also got two innings of relief work from Grace Ann McDonald and Kaymie Chandler who allowed just one earned run and struck out two.
 
The Demons wrap up play in the South Alabama Invitational at 10 a.m. against UIC.