LAKE CHARLES – Northwestern State hits the road for the first time in conference play this weekend when it takes on McNeese is a three-game series beginning on Friday.
 
The first game of the weekend set is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday with Saturday serving as the doubleheader day beginning at 1 p.m. All games will air live on ESPN+ from Joe Miller Field at Cowgirl Diamond.
 
The series with McNeese (14-13, 1-2) signals the beginning of the toughest two-week conference stretch of the season for the Demons (3-21, 0-3). After the three games in Lake Charles, the Demons return home to host Southeastern the following weekend, the two teams that split 18 of the 20 total first-place votes in the preseason poll and winners of the past four tournament championships.
 
The young majority of NSU's young roster got their first taste of conference play this past weekend against HCU, but the first road conference game has yet to crossed off the list during the year of many firsts for the new Demons.
 
The Demons are midway through the 2025 schedule as they enter the series, and continuing to see players develop, find their way and adjust to play at this level. 
 
There have been 14 games so far this year where 12 or more non-pitchers were used in a game and four times this year, including on Tuesday night against Baylor, where 14 non-pitchers were used in a game.
 
"I think it's been great for everybody because  everybody's gotten reps," head coach Jenny Fuller said. "Everybody's gotten into games and everybody is getting the taste of what it takes to be a player at this level. 
 
"Players that have stood out, obviously Brooklynn Stohler on the mound. She's carried the load for us and will continue to do so as long as she can. I know she'll get stronger, the more she pitches. And I would say Sophia Levers has done a good job of really holding it down in the outfield and stepped up in big situations at the plate too. I think that the team is kind of following her lead a little bit on those fronts."
 
Livers continues to lead the team with a .282 average from the top of the lineup with 20 total hits on the year and seven RBI, tied for second most on the team.
 
With six hits in the past three games, Peyton Peck is now batting .282 as well on the season with perhaps the hottest bat in the lineup. Riley Schwisow hit her team-leading second home run of the season on Tuesday, her third extra-base hit in the past two weeks, providing the Demons with some of the pop in the lineup that she has in the bat.
 
Schwisow hit nine home runs and had a .693 slugging percentage at Sioux Falls in 2024. But just like the rest of the newcomers has had to work through the adjustment period to the Division I level.
 
"That's what we talked to her about is, there was going be that adjustment going from Division II to Division I, but we knew that she would be able to do it," Fuller said. "And we're confident that the more reps that she gets, she's going to get better. A couple practices we had before we played Baylor, she was hitting the ball really well. And I was telling Brad (Fuller), she's been looking good and so I wasn't surprised to see her hit that home run because she'd been on the ball all week."
 
They take on a McNeese team coming off a split of two midweek games this week. 
 
The Cowgirls picked up a 2-0 win against Minnesota on Tuesday before losing at Louisiana Tech on Wednesday 10-5. McNeese lost its opening conference series of the season at Lamar a week ago, getting shutout in the final two games in Beaumont with a combined 11-0 score.