HAMMOND, La. – Northwestern State had chance after chance to put runs on the board on Saturday, but more often than not came up empty in a 2-1 loss to Southeastern in the Cypress Series finale.
 
The Demons (14-18, 4-5) left 10 runners on base in the game, including seven through the first four innings, missing their chance to apply even more pressure to the Lady Lions (26-9, 9-0) than they already were.
 
"We did a lot of good things to give ourselves chances, but we just couldn't get the timely hit when we needed it," head coach Jenny Fuller said. "Against a team like Southeastern, you have to capitalize on those opportunities because runs are hard to come by against the caliber pitching that they have."
 
NSU got a runner to second base in each of the first two innings of the game but failed to bring them around. The second time through the order though produced a different result and changed the forecast for the rest of the game.
 
JT Smith hit a sharp single up the middle to open the inning, leading to the first of two SLU pitching changes in the inning. Two straight walks loaded the bases setting up Brynn Daniel's sacrifice fly to deep left center field that gave NSU the 1-0 lead.
 
Aly Delafield reloaded the bases with a walk and induced the second pitching change as the Lions brought in ace Cera Blanchard, who got out of the inning with a ground ball to second, stranding more Demon runners in the process.
 
Following an anomalous outing in game one on Friday, Demon ace Mattison Buster, looking for a redemptive performance for herself and her team, delivered just that in the finale. She retired the first six batters of the game in order before two straight hits to start the third led to the game-tying run.
 
Buster got the next three batters out in a row but the tying run came across on the second of three straight ground outs to end the inning.
 
She threw her conference-leading 11^th complete game of the season going the full 6.0 innings holding the Lady Lions to just two runs, on three hits. The three hits is the second fewest for SLU this season, behind the two against Oklahoma. It also marked the fourth time since 2020 the Lions were held to just three hits in a conference game, matching the fewest during that time.
 
NSU left two more runner on base in the fourth, Mckenna Rinewalt (HBP) and JT Smith, the first of her two intentional walks in the final two plate appearances of the game.
 
The Lady Lions capitalized on the missed chance for the Demons to regain the lead immediately, taking the lead on a s two-out single up the middle in the bottom of the inning.
 
Blanchard got the Demons in order in the fifth, and was able to fight through one more rally in the sixth to keep it a one-run game.
 
Rinewalt reached on an infield single and Peyton Young shot a ball through the left side for a pinch-hit single on the first pitch she saw with two out. Smtih was sent to first with another walk to load the bases and Blanchard induced an inning-ending groundout to quell the Demon rally.