MONROE – Armed with the momentum of their fifth straight Southland Conference series victory, the Northwestern State baseball team is set for its second straight week of double-midweek action.
 
The Demons' third set of Tuesday-Wednesday games this season, squaring off with longtime state rival ULM (14-18) in a home-and-home series that begins at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Lou St. Amant Field. Wednesday's return game will take place at 6 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
Free streaming audio of Tuesday's game will be available through www.NSUDemons.com and the Northwestern State Athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices. Wednesday's game will air on ESPN+.
 
"Regardless of what ends up being the results of the games or the opponent, what we want to do with these midweeks is to continue along the path of growth and development for the program," second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "We want to take what we learned from this weekend and put it to use in two more ball games. We want to take what we learned about last week's double midweek against quality opponents, and we want to put that to use. We want to clean up the execution part of it. We want to do all of the things we think are pillars of the program."
 
After a three-game stretch in which the Demons (20-12) found themselves trailing by multiple runs early in the game, they took early leads against UTRGV in both games of Sunday's doubleheader.
 
Included in that run were last week's games at UL Lafayette and Tulane in which the Demons twice found themselves down 5-0 before the fourth inning.
 
"We recognize when we discuss it, that it was happening at the beginning of ball games or that there was a certain kind of lull in the way we were getting started," Betrand said. "Realistically, in the overall scheme, you look at the idea that throwing strikes, playing clean defense and grinding through at-bats is when the Demons are at their best. So, let's go out there and, from the first pitch of the game, let's make sure we have that at the forefront of our minds. That is where the focus lies, and the intensity lies in playing the Demons' best brand of baseball and not necessarily putting ourselves in those self-infliction situations and not gifting our opponents so much momentum at any point in the game."
 
Northwestern will send sophomore right-hander Kevin Robinson (5-1, 5.12) to the mound against ULM left-hander Brennan Eager (4-2, 2.63) on Tuesday. Neither team has announced a starter for Wednesday's game in Natchitoches.
 
Facing the same opponent in consecutive games is not new to the Demons but doing so in a midweek setting is.
 
The last time Northwestern squared off with the same team in a two-game midweek series came in 2022 in a home-and-home series against UL Lafayette.
 
While the Warhawks enter the two-game series off a series loss to Appalachian State in Monroe, ULM has posted a 2-1 mark against Southland Conference teams this season.
 
"We're going to need our best brand of baseball, and we're going to need all hands on deck in what we know is going to be a very challenging upcoming weekend," Bertrand said. "Putting it to good use right now allows us to be able to be in a position to not only win them all, but to also be in a position to continue this upward trajectory if we're going to make a run at this league."