NATCHITOCHES – Mattison Buster did something no Southland Conference pitcher had done in five years this past weekend, earning her a second SLC Pitcher of the Week award the league office announced on Monday.
 
The ace of the Northwestern State pitching staff helped carry the Demons (14-15, 4-2) to a 3-1 record this past week, tossing two more complete games and picking up all three wins for her team to give her a conference-leading 12 on the season.
 
Her total already matches the most wins by an NSU pitcher in a season over the past eight year, tying Maggie Darr (2023) and Emma Callie Delafield (2021).
 
While impressive on its own, the performance she gave in Saturday's series finale against McNeese cemented her as one of the top pitchers in the Southland Conference this year.
 
In perhaps the most dominant performance of her career, Buster threw 5.2 perfect innings to open the runner game and faced just one batter over the minimum in a 10-inning, one-hit shutout to give the Demons their first series win over McNeese since 2015.
 
Buster retired the first 17 batters of the game in a row before a two-out single in the sixth inning. She sat down the final 10 batters of the game in a row before freshman Mckenna Rinewalt's walk-off single gave the Demons the 1-0 win in extra innings.
 
The one hit allowed was the fewest in a conference game for the Cowgirls since 2021, and combined with her complete game win the night before, made Buster the first pitcher since 2021 to win two games in the same series against McNeese. Sam Houston's Regan Dunn accomplished the feat during that 2021 series.
 
The now two-time conference pitcher of the week threw 17.0 innings across two games against the Cowgirls, holding the vaunted lineup that came in batting .328 on the season to a miniscule .140 average for the weekend.
 
The historic performance in the series finale overshadowed a 4.0 inning one-hit performance earlier in the week at Grambling where she allowed just two baserunners on the way to a combined shutout with Erin Kirkland.
 
For the week Buster went 3-0 in three starts with a 1.67 ERA, throwing two complete games and 21.0 innings with 12 strikeouts, only four walks, and held opposing hitters to a .130 batting average.
 
Through six weeks of the season, Buster ranks in the top 10 in the country in complete games (10), games started (16), fewest hit batters (2), innings pitched (103.1), pitching appearances (22), shutouts (4) and wins (12).
 
Buster was not the only NSU player to be recognized as leadoff batter JT Smith, who went 5-for-8 (.625) at the plate with a triple, home run, 1.956 OPS and .706 on-base percentage during the week and received an honorable mention for SLC Hitter of the Week. 
 
Against the only other two-time conference pitcher of the week in the league, McNeese's Brookelyn Taylor, Smith was 3-for-3 with a home run and a triple, reached base four times total and drove in or scored three runs.
 
Smith reached base 12 times in 17 total plate appearances during the week and was only retired three times without producing a run for the Demons. She has a 13-game reached base streak heading into the weekend series at Southeastern.