NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State used a combination of patience and big hits to complete its first Southland Conference sweep since 2022 on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Demons (17-18, 7-5) took advantage of 17 free passes (11 walks and six HBP) to put up their most runs in a game in three years for a 15-2 run-rule win against East Texas A&M (6-31, 1-11).
 
"We're excited to get a sweep for the first time since we've been here and really proud of the offense today," head coach Jenny Fuller said. "We've been struggling in those third games this year to score runs. They came out ready to roll and put on a show today."
 
For the third time on the weekend and the 17^th time this season, the Demons scored in the first inning to take an early edge.
 
JT Smith drew a leadoff walk, one of four times she reached base in the game with a free pass, to open the game. A steal of second moved her to scoring position and over to third on a base hit from Makynlie Jones.
 
The two executed a double steal of second and home for the game's first run and gave the Demons 60 stolen bases on the year, the most by a team in the past 20 years.
 
Jones scored on an RBI single from Brynn Daniel to put the Demons up by a pair after the first.
 
Britt Bourgoyne drew a four-pitch walk to start the second, the first of three straight free passes to load the bases. Jones laced a ball past the drawn-in infield that made its way to the wall bringing around all three runners on her ninth double of the season. A bases loaded walk to Aly Delafield later in the frame ended a stretch of four straight walks that added another run.
 
"We emphasized staying locked in because when you are getting walked and hit a lot it is easy to lose focus," Fuller said. "(Associate head coach) Brad (Fuller) did a great job of keeping them focused with intent and we capitalized on them walking and hitting us."
 
The Demons picked up two more runs in the third on a Mckenna Rinewalt RBI single and RBI groundout from Daniel. The Lions' two runs came in the next half inning on back-to-back solo home runs, but the Demons broke things open in the bottom of the fourth to put the game away.
 
Delafield and DJ Lynch hit back-to-back, one-out doubles for the first of the seven runs scored in the inning. Back-to-back hit batters again loaded the bases for Jones to draw the second of three bases-loaded walks for the Demons in the game.
 
That was when Daniel broke the dam hitting a no-doubt grand slam to left, her first long ball of the season, pushing the lead to 14-2 in favor of NSU.
 
"Honestly in that at-bat I just said to myself 'go have fun'," Daniel said. "We had already scored a couple, so I went up there to have fun, not trying to hit a home run and just hit the ball hard. I had a pretty good weekend and seeing the ball well, so I saw my pitch and swung and I knew it was gone."
 
Another base hit and two more hit batters brought Lynch up for a second time in the inning, where she worked the final bases-loaded walk of the weekend for the Demons bringing in the 15^th run.
 
"It can be difficult when there are a lot of walks and things because you want to go up there and get a hit," Daniel said. "But it's important to stay patient at the plate and I thought we were good about that today and we stayed focused the whole game."
 
The Demons scored six runs with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth of game three and 18 total runs with the bags full across the three-game series. All four hits with the bases loaded this weekend went for extra bases and drove in at least three runs.
 
Mattison Buster benefited from the offensive outpouring to earn her 14^th win of the season, and 12^th complete game of the season, both conference bests. The 14 wins tie her with Micaela Bouvier for the most by a Demon pitcher since 2018.