NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State wraps up the first of its two in-state, midweek, home-and-home series of the year on Tuesday when it hosts Louisiana Tech.
 
First pitch against the Bulldogs is set for 6 p.m. Tickets for the game can be purchased by visiting www.nsutickets.com or by calling 318-357-4268.
 
Both teams enter the game after conference series sweeps this past weekend. The Demons (3-27, 0-9) were swept at home by Southeastern while the Bulldogs (19-11, 7-2) took all three games against Middle Tennessee in Ruston.
 
Each of the series had two games come down to the final innings and were decided by two runs or fewer. The Demons used sixth-inning rallies twice on Friday to tie the game or take the lead, but ultimately fell short in the seventh inning or later.
 
It was a five-run sixth-inning rally for the Bulldogs that propelled them to an 8-7 win in Saturday's game setting the stage for the walk-off single in the seventh on Sunday to complete the sweep.
 
The opposing results for both teams in close games this past weekend served as the latest in the collection from the season as a whole. 
 
NSU lost two more games by two runs or fewer, doing so against the top team in the Southland Conference. Four of the six games against the top two teams in the league, Southeastern and McNeese, across the past two weekends were decided by three runs or less. NSU is 2-9 in games decided by two runs or less this year and 0-5 in those games against Southland opponents.
 
During their eight-game winning streak, Tech has won four one-run games and are 6-4 this year in games decided by two runs or fewer.
 
The latest results for the Demons continue to provide more evidence for the growth of the young team, putting themselves in position to win multiple games against the best that the Southland has to offer.
 
In the five close game loses in conference play this season the Demons have had the tying or go-ahead run at the plate or on base in the sixth inning or later nine times out of the 10 total innings. Aly Delafield's two-run single against Southeastern on Friday night is the only time during that stretch however that NSU was able to come through with the needed hit.
 
The first meeting this year between Tech and NSU fell into the close game category until one of three Bulldog home runs broke things open in the fourth inning.
 
Tech took the lead on a two-run homer in the first but had that lead cut in half two innings later when the Demons sent one over the fence.
 
Delafield hit her first career home run in the third inning, accounting for NSU's lone run of the game. The Bulldogs got the run back in the bottom of the inning on a double to left center before the three-run shot in the fourth propelled them to a 9-1 run-rule win.