NATCHITOCHES – One of the busiest weeks of the season for the Northwestern State baseball team begins Tuesday night.
 
The Demons return to the friendly embrace of Brown-Stroud Field for four games in five days, beginning with a 6 p.m. Tuesday matchup against LSU-Alexandria. The game will air on ESPN+.
 
"We're excited about the opportunity Tuesday night is going to bring – the opportunity to play against, again, someone we respect the heck out of in (LSUA coach) Kody Gautreaux and the job that he's done," second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "An opportunity to play against a good baseball team, a team that will challenge us in a multitude of ways. We've got to be ready to play. To get back in front of our fans is always a great thing."
 
Those fans have seen the Demons (21-16) win 15 of their first 18 games at home this season. Included in that start – which already has landed Northwestern more wins at home than the 14 it posted in Bertrand's first season – was a 14-game win streak from Feb. 15-April 4.
 
That surge was the longest single-season home win streak since 1990 and the longest overall since a 14-game run spanning the final nine home games of the 1998 season and the first five of the 1999 campaign.
 
"We have an opportunity to continue to work on the Demons," Bertrand said. "If the game teaches us anything – and really has done a great job of teaching us in the past month or so – is, on those hot streaks, you realize how lucky we are and fortunate we are to put ourselves in the positions we put ourselves in when we were playing well. Winning five (Southland) series in a row. All of the great things that came with quality baseball versus the last week and all of the things that came with a four-game skid. What happens on the other end when the game humbles you. It's another opportunity to work on ourselves.
 
"We have to learn and recognize what was good and what was positive and put that into action. We have to learn and recognize what were moments of failure -- or not being the best versions of ourselves -- and learn from that. How do we allow that to help us grow and get better."
 
The Generals (21-21) come into Tuesday's game after taking two of three games from Jarvis Christian in a Red River Athletic Conference weekend series. Tuesday's matchup marks the fifth straight season for the Generals to travel to Natchitoches.
 
Northwestern, which will start sophomore right-hander Kevin Robinson (5-1), leads the all-time series 7-0.