NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Second-year Northwestern State baseball coach Chris Bertrand has talked many times this season about holding momentum within a game.
 
Beginning Friday night at 6:05 p.m., the Demons will see if they can maintain a different type of momentum – one that goes from game to game – as they open their final three-game Southland Conference road series of the year at Stephen F. Austin. The series also includes a 3:05 p.m. Saturday matchup and a 1:05 p.m. Sunday series finale. Sunday's game will air on ESPN+ while all free streaming audio of all three games will be available through www.NSUDemons.com and the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices.
 
"The lesson is about how to strike a balance," Bertrand said. "We appreciate all the compliments and the way Tuesday night (a 13-3 run-rule win at No. 4 LSU) moved people. I want the players to enjoy that aspect of it. I want them to be proud of – and have a sense of pride in – the accomplishment because of the way it moves and it impacts so many people around the program. There is something to be taken from that, and there is joy in that. You balance the scales on the baseball side of it by saying, 'How do we use it to continue on that upward path?' The arms we faced. The way we played. The way we were able to be successful.
 
"You want the baseball part of it to be learned and then put behind to focus on the task that is at hand Friday night against what will be another quality opponent in a really tough road environment. The lesson continues to be we want to balance it out."
 
 That task for Northwestern (25-17, 15-9) is to remain level-headed after collecting its first win against a ranked team in six seasons while also handing the nationally ranked Tigers their first run-rule loss in a non-conference game in program history.
 
The Demons will try to do against a Lumberjack team that is finding its way under first-year head coach Matt Vanderburg. Like Northwestern, Stephen F. Austin (11-28, 3-18) already has surpassed its win total from the 2024 season.
 
The Lumberjacks are in their first season in the Southland since 2021, which also marked the last time Northwestern played a game in Nacogdoches.
 
The teams met seven times in the interim with the Demons winning five of those meetings. All seven came either in Natchitoches or in Sugar Land, Texas.
 
For the first time since the opening weekend of Southland Conference play from Feb. 28-March 2, Northwestern will have a different three-man starting rotation for a weekend series. Freshman left-hander Carter White (2-1, 2.29) will start Friday's opener and will be followed by right-handers Tyler Bryan (1-5, 5.82) and Trent Hillen (6-1, 3.51). the reigning Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week, in the final two games of the series.
 
White drew the start in the Demons' conference opener at Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 28, working four-plus solid innings, allowing one run.
 
"Exactly in line with the values of the program – pulling value, that learning, that using ever single part of it along the way – us making decisions that put the baseball team and the program in the best possible position to win ball games and the best possible position to be successful," Bertrand said. "It also helped us that we got Dylan (Marionneaux) in the game on Tuesday night, and he tasted success in a new role, and he was able to get back on track. It's an extremely positive thing where we're trying to find the right buttons to push in the best possible way for the Demons to remain on the path to reach the goals we have set before ourselves."
 
Series Probables
Friday; Northwestern State LHP Carter White (2-1, 2.29) at Stephen F. Austin RHP Dylan Mulcahy (1-2, 6.63)
Saturday: Northwestern State RHP Tyler Bryan (1-5, 5.82) at Stephen F. Austin LHP Cody Templeton (3-4, 4.57)
Sunday:  Northwestern Sate RHP Trent Hillen (6-1, 3.51) at Stephen F. Austin TBD