NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State baseball team's Southland Conference opener Friday night against New Orleans is a "White Out" game, which is fitting for where the Demons are 21 games into their season.
 
Third-year head coach Chris Bertrand seemingly has needed an endless supply of White-Out – the office variety – to edit his lineups for a Northwestern team that enters the weekend 13-8 overall and 6-3 in league play, tied for the conference lead.
 
As the Demons open the conference series against the Privateers (9-14, 3-6) at 6:30 p.m. Friday, beginning Military Appreciation and First Responders Weekend, they do so with a group that has focused on what it has not what it doesn't.
 
"When we say it's next man up or whatever it takes, sometimes that needs to be applied in the correct way for the individual and their game," Bertrand said. "At times, if you're scuffling with the bat or there are deficiencies we have, a great player can continue to make a huge impact on the team if he utilizes all of his other resources. If he utilizes all of his other skills – there's that complementary nature, there's that ability to make others around you better – there's that ability to celebrate what it is guys bring to the team."
 
Northwestern carries the Southland's top pitching staff in terms of ERA (4.10) and No. 2 fielding percentage defense (.976) into Friday's series opener. The remainder of the series is set for 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday with all three games airing on ESPN+.
 
The Demons will send out the same starting rotation that helped propel Northwestern to its first three-game Southland sweep of the season a week ago against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Left-hander Brody Trosclair (3-0, 0.45) will make his second straight Friday night start while right-handers Dylan Marionneaux (1-2, 4.88) and Trent Hillen (1-1, 5.40) follow in their respective Saturday and Sunday slots.
 
The change in the rotation clicked for a weekend where each pitcher either set or tied a career high in strikeouts against the Islanders with Hillen notching his first career double-figure strikeout game when he punched out 10 Texas A&M-Corpus Christ batters in the series finale. It was the first double-figure strikeout outing for a Demon pitcher since Chase Prestwich fanned 10 against Troy on March 1, 2024.
 
"We made those moves because we're in search of – at all times – what is best for the individual at the time and what is best for the Demons," Bertrand said. "Those guys, the way they go about their business and attack their starts, they give us the best opportunity to put our team in a position to win three baseball games."
 
The starting trio will be challenged by a New Orleans lineup that is hitting .295 on the season with 28 home runs and 32 stolen bases. The Privateers, under first-year head coach Andrew Gipson, rank in the top four in the Southland in all three categories.
 
Gipson is in his first season back in the Southland after spending two seasons as the head coach at Belhaven. He previously served as the pitching coach and associate head coach at Southeastern Louisiana.
 
"We have a tremendous amount of respect for the job Gip does, the staff he has put together and the way he is growing that baseball team and baseball program," Bertrand said. "We have a tremendous amount of respect for anybody who looks at their personnel and tries to pull strengths out of it. They do that in a multitude of ways. We have to be able to combat what they do at every turn. We have a tremendous amount of respect for the team that Gip is going to bring in here and the brand of baseball they are going to play. We're looking forward to great competition."
 
Series Probables
Friday: New Orleans RHP William Andrade (0-1, 4.50) at Northwestern State LHP Brody Trosclair (3-0, 0.45)
Saturday: New Orleans LHP Bryson Goff (3-1, 9.87) at Northwestern State RHP Dylan Marionneaux (1-2, 4.88)
Sunday: New Orleans TBA at Northwestern State RHP Trent Hillen (1-1, 5.40)