MONROE – Three-game series are commonplace for college baseball teams.
 
Typically, those series are played across a weekend in one constant place. Occasionally, based on distance, the three-game sets may' alternate home sites from game to game.
 
Northwestern State's three-game season series with ULM, which concludes Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Lou St. Amant Field on ESPN+, is a bit unique in that it has been a series comprised solely of midweek games. The third game of the series, which also will have free streaming audio available on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, will mark the Demons' second trip to Monroe in three weeks.
 
"I'm interested to see how the ball club responds to all of those lessons that we've been talking about taking with us in terms of how unique the scheduling part of it is, because you look at this as the third game of a series," second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "You look at it as the first time we've probably done this type of format. I'm really excited about the way Fed (ULM head coach Mike Federico) agreed to do this over the course of multiple seasons. For us, it's another opportunity to go out and compete. It's another opportunity for us to go out and put all of the lessons that we talked to our guys about learning into action."
 
Northwestern (27-18) dropped the first two meetings of the season with the Warhawks (21-23) on back-to-back days in April.
 
In the Demons' first trip to Monroe on April 8, they held a 5-2 lead before ULM rallied for three runs in the eighth and ninth innings to force extra innings before Henry Garcia Jr. gave the Warhawks a walk-off, 10^th-inning win. A night later in Natchitoches, ULM scored a 5-2 victory to win its fourth straight game in the all-time series.
 
"We have no problems with the way we played the ball game when we were there," Bertrand said. "We have something to learn from the way the end of the ball game shook out. When you overcome the extremely emotional part of how that game unfolded, you look back at it and say that it was a learning opportunity, and you look back and say, 'Hey, man, we played great baseball for eight and a half innings. Let's just learn how to close it out and finish.' Hopefully, we take that lesson and put it to use."
 
The back-to-back losses to ULM were part of a season-long four-game losing streak the Demons ended with a 10-5 win at HCU on April 13.
 
Since that time, Northwestern is 6-2 and is off to a 3-1 start on a season-long, eight-game road trip that concludes this weekend at Pepperdine. Earlier this season, the Demons went 5-2 on a seven-game road trip that covered games at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Grambling and New Orleans from March 14-23.
 
"I think it speaks to the nature in which our guys buy into what messages we're trying to send and learn," Bertrand said. "We say they're veterans and they're mature, but I think it speaks to the way those mature veterans lead the rest of the clubhouse. We can't take credit or it all. It's in the way Reese (Lipoma) and Rocco (Gump) and Clay (Jung) lead by example. They lead through their own qualities. It's a collaborative effort of us being headed in the right direction, building our rosters so we can gain experience and maturity. Once we do, those guys helping us lead and helping establish the culture we're trying to create – not only for these games and the rest of the season but for years to come."
 
Probable Pitchers
Northwestern State RHP Kevin Robinson (6-1, 4.26) at ULM RHP Holden Hess (1-0, 5.63)