THIBODAUX – The first four games of the Northwestern State baseball team's season-long, seven-game road trip share a common thread – homecomings.
 
The Demons open the first of back-to-back Southland Conference road weekend series Friday night at 6 at Nicholls, extending a run of hometown returns for Northwestern. The series also includes a 6 p.m. Saturday matchup and a 1 p.m. Sunday matinee series finale. All three games will air on ESPN+ with free streaming audio available on www.NSUDemons.com and through the Northwestern State athletics mobile app, which can be downloaded free for Apple and Android devices.
 
Northwestern (16-9, 8-4) extended its winning streak to three games Tuesday night with a 5-0 victory at ULM, which served as a return home for first baseman Thomas Marsala III, who homered and drove in two runs in the game.
 
"We talk about learning life lessons," third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "We talk about pulling value from every moment in every situation. We talk about teammates making each other better. That's the impact of a great team is that you have great players, but sometimes it's overlooked that great players are not just found in the numbers. They're found in how they can make others around them better and how others around them can learn. That's definitely something we want to do.
 
"We're going to learn from Thomas' experience. We're going to learn from what a chance that Brooks Leonard and (Trent) Hillen and Brody (Trosclair) and all of those guys get a chance to do this weekend, and we're pretty confident that we know it's going to happen on down the line."
 
Freshman left-hander Brody Trosclair (3-1), a Thibodaux native, will make his third straight series-opening start and will do so in his hometown. Right-hander Trent Hillen (2-1), set to start Sunday's series finale, returns to the place he began his collegiate career.
 
Brooks Leonard, who has hit .348 and scored 16 runs in 16 games as Northwestern's leadoff hitter, and his twin brother, Bryce, will play in the closest Division I ballpark to their hometown of Pierre Part, which is 38 miles from Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray E. Didier Field.
 
Friday will mark Trosclair's first road start of his career after moving into the rotation for the Demons' home series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
"It's another opportunity for him to showcase himself in a way that checks a box," Bertrand said. "This will be his first (road start), but it undoubtedly won't be his last. How can he go out and perform in a manner that we can use (Friday) night, but at the same time, use for the next couple of starts on the road, because he's going to make a big one on Friday night – and that's the most important one – but next week he's going to have make a big one in a big environment at UTRGV. At some point, he's going to have to make a big one in a way that is important in standings all of the other things. We look at it as a great opportunity, because we have confidence in him, and that he, and we, will be able to use everything from it moving forward."
 
Northwestern took its first road series of league play three weeks ago at Incarnate Word, winning two of three games in an extremely offensive environment.
 
That likely will not be the case this weekend.
 
Northwestern and Nicholls (13-13, 5-6) enter the weekend with two of the top pitching staffs in the Southland Conference.
 
The Demons lead the league in ERA (3.81) while Nicholls (4.93) ranks third. Nicholls leads the league in fewest hits per nine innings allowed (7.91) while the Demons rank second (7.94). The Colonels have struck out 273 hitters, second in the league, while the Demons rank third with 249.
 
In addition to Trosclair and Hillen, the Demons have the reigning Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week Dylan Marionneaux set to start Saturday's middle game of the series.
 
"You look at the track record in the 26 games they've played so far, and you get the idea of how competitive they have been and how they have held some pretty good offenses down," Bertrand said. "They've won some big ball games. We need to be prepared for three incredible games and three tough ball games. We're lucky and we are glad to be armed with the ammunition we have and what we have learned about ourselves through the first 25 games of the season."
 
Series Probables
Friday: Northwestern State LHP Brody Trosclair (3-1, 1.04) at Nicholls RHP Nuno Parache (0-2, 4.18)
Saturday: Northwestern State RHP Dylan Marionneaux (2-2, 4.17) at Nicholls LHP Austin Vargas (0-1, 7.78)
Sunday: Northwestern State RHP Trent Hillen (2-1, 5.45) at Nicholls RHP Haden Luke (4-1, 5.70)