NATCHITOCHES – Any coach will tell you a player that is committed, willing to do whatever it takes to help the team, loyal, tough and gives it their all on every play is someone they want on their team.
 
For the past four years Bailie Ragsdale has been just that for Northwestern State.
 
From a small town in East Texas, Ragsdale has been a starter for the Demons since she stepped on campus in the fall of 2021. Either at one of the three outfield spots or on the right side of the infield at second base, she has been written into the lineup card a total of 167 times across the past four seasons.
 
She will likely 170 starts in her career this weekend as the Demons (6-41, 3-21) close the regular season with a three-game series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (10-35, 4-20). 
 
The series begins with Friday's doubleheader starting at 4 p.m., also serving as softball's annual Fork Cancer game. The first 50 fans at the game will receive a free Fork Cancer shirt.
 
Saturday's finale, set for a 12 p.m. starts, will serve as senior day for Ragsdale with presentation taking place following the game. All three games are scheduled to air on ESPN+ as the Demons attempt to earn a spot in the Southland Conference Tournament next week.
 
The Demons need a win in all three games against the Islanders this weekend while looking for help from HCU in a three-game sweep of East Texas A&M in Houston. Should both occur, the Demons would be the No. 8 seed in next week's tournament.
 
A trip to the conference tournament would serve as the latest growth opportunity for the youngest team in the country, with Ragsdale, the only senior and only upperclassman on the 2025 team.
 
"She's been in a really difficult spot this season as our only senior," first-year head coach Jenny Fuller said. "She doesn't really have anybody else that she can talk to that's in the same sort of stage of life as she is. So, I think she's done such a good job of being that example for the younger players. Showing them how we're going to play hard and how Demon softball is going to be."
 
Entering the year Ragsdale had started more games at NSU, 132, than all her current teammates combined.
 
As the elder statesman on the team, Ragsdale was thrust into a leadership role for the young Demon team as she herself was making the transition into her third different coaching staff in three years following the hiring of Fuller in July of 2024.
 
"You kind of have to go into that teaching role rather than expecting everyone to know what they're doing," Ragsdale said. "At the beginning of the year most of the team didn't know and that's what growing in this game is. Softball is a sport that allows you the chance to grow every day and learn something new. Teaching them and helping them develop and mature throughout the year has been what I've done this year. Just being their source for everything, whatever it may be."
 
Teaching the newcomers what life at the DI level looks like and serving as a "bridge to our team and the pulse of the team," according to Fuller, was personified by the way that she has played the game since her freshman season.
 
With a willingness to run into and through a wall to catch a fly ball or lay down a sacrifice bunt or play three different positions within the same game, Ragsdale's toughness and selflessness has been on full display from the first pitch of the 2022 season through game 167 of her career this past weekend at Nicholls.
 
She missed a handful of games earlier this year after a collision with the wall during the weekend at Mississippi State but was undeterred in her handful of brushes with the outfield fence this past weekend down in Thibodaux, making the catch in each instance.
 
"That comes from my parents," Ragsdale said. "My dad would always say when we were practicing 'you've got to give 110 percent because that's what people want to see, they came to watch 110 percent.' My dad does construction and works his butt off every day to get what he wants and I do the same thing. Whether I'm hurting every day or not I do it to play softball and I don't know any other way."
 
And it is her parents, Bryan and Christie, that have lived and died with every all-out play their daughter has made for the Demons. From Natchitoches to Mobile to Corpus Christi to Memphis and everywhere in between, the Ragsdales have been exactly where they've wanted to be every weekend during the spring – in the stands watching Bailie play.
 
"If it weren't for my mom and my dad I would not be here," Ragsdale said. "They are my support system. My rocks. They are me. They've taught me everything I know. They raised me to the woman that I am today. When I see them in the stands it gives me a calmness no matter what the situation."
 
That serenity has helped Ragsdale accrue more than 130 hits, 75 runs scored, 20 stolen bases, 200 putouts and 120 assists with an on-base percentage of .345 and batting average at nearly .300 for her career.
 
A constant for the Demons over the past four season through three different coaching staffs, including two in her final two seasons. When it would have been easy, especially in today's world of college athletics, to go somewhere else after the first or second coaching change, the loyalty and commitment that she learned from her parents, led her to stay at NSU and be that example on and off the field of how things should be done.
 
"When I came here for my very first visit it felt like home," Ragsdale said. "My cousin (Kaylee Isenberg) had been here the four years prior, so I knew Natchitoches. I loved Natchitoches. I came to NSU not just for softball but for the culture and atmosphere that Natchitoches itself holds. My first year here I called this place my home. It wasn't East Texas anymore. 
 
"When we had the turnover of coaches, I didn't feel like I needed to leave and go venture off somewhere new. I was going to ride it out. I wasn't going to leave home. My mom and dad taught me how to be loyal. You're loyal to the people that trusted in you that you could make something of the program."
 
An all-conference player following her freshman season, an academic all-conference choice after her sophomore season and a three-time, so far, commissioner's honor roll selection Ragsdale has made her own mark on the Northwestern State history books.
 
Although her career statistical numbers on the field may fall short of a top 10 spot, there is no doubt she ranks among the most gritty and tenacious players in Demon softball history. Fulfilling the dream of being a college softball player that nearly every young girl who has played the game possesses. 
 
"It was a dream of mine to play DI softball," Ragsdale said. "Coming from a small town in East Texas I didn't really think it was possible, but I'm here and I'm finishing it up. It's bittersweet. I think these have been the best four years that I've played softball. They've been the most fun in the most family-base atmosphere. NSU has really been a home away from home for me."