NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State spent a little extra time in the batting cages this week, and it showed on Friday night.
The Demons (16-18, 6-5) combined to score 24 runs on 24 hits, launching four home runs and tallying 12 extra-base hits in 12-7 and 12-2 wins against East Texas A&M (6-30, 1-10) to clinch their third conference series victory of the season.
NSU will attempt to earn its first sweep of the Lions in program history and its first conference series sweep since 2022 on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+ or heard locally on 100.7 FM KZBL.
"The offense stepped up in a big way today," head coach
Jenny Fuller said. "They scored early and scored often, and that was just what we needed for this series. We knew that East Texas could hit a little bit and put the ball in play, so it was great to see our bats come out and do what they did today."
When the Demons scored on Friday, they did so in bunches, putting up two or more runs seven times across 10 innings at the plate. That included three-run first innings in both games to seize early control.
Back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the first of game one from
Riley Schwisow and
Peyton Young scored the first two runs of the day.
Sister Arnold drove in the third with a two-out hit.
Young was just getting started. After her RBI double in the first, she launched her first career home run in the third. Arnold followed two batters later with her second home run of the season, stretching the lead to 6-0.
Nearly one year to the day since
Brynn Daniel hit two home runs against East Texas A&M (March 29, 2025), Young matched the feat with a three-run shot for her second of the game an inning later. As part of a 4-for-4 performance, Young hit two home runs, drove in six runs, scored four times and finished a single shy of the cycle.
"I knew that I got the first one, but the second one I thought was a fly out," Young joked. "I was yelling at the runners, 'back, back' to tag, but the wind took it a little and it got out. Both of them were huge for me. They were the first two of my college career, so it's crazy it happened in the same game. It was a good day."
A five-run fifth from the Lions prevented the Demons from ending the game early but only briefly slowed the NSU bats.
Young tripled in a run to right and later scored on a sacrifice fly, giving the Demons a 12-5 lead heading into the sixth.
The Lions added two in the seventh, but NSU starting pitcher
Mattison Buster got the final two outs on ground balls to the left side to secure her 13th win of the season, the most by a Demon pitcher since 2018.
The Demons used a similar formula to start game two, scoring three runs with two outs in the bottom of the first.
Brynn Daniel delivered a bases-clearing double to right-center to give NSU the early lead.
"I think we lost a little bit of the momentum in that first game, so it was good that we closed it out with a win," Fuller said. "Then to get the momentum back early in the second game was huge. That really propelled us into a win."
The Lions pulled within one in the third on a two-run home run from Tatum Wright that initially landed in the glove of center fielder
JT Smith before bouncing out and over the wall as she collided with the padding.
Wright's ninth home run of the season was the only blemish for starter
Brooklynn Stohler, who earned her second win of the season, allowing two runs on five hits across 4.0 innings.
The Demons responded immediately in the bottom half of the inning, again doing damage with two outs as Smith cleared the bases with a double off the wall in right-center — the same spot where she nearly made a highlight-reel catch the half-inning before.
A six-run fourth inning put the game out of reach as NSU scored four runs before recording an out.
Makynlie Jones hit her first triple of the season and scored on a wild pitch during
Aly Delafield's at-bat, which ended with her first home run of the season. Arnold later doubled in two more runs to make it 10-2. A pair of Lion errors with runners on base led to two additional runs, giving the Demons plenty of breathing room in the run-rule win.
"A lot of us had the approach of just staying on top of the ball, trying not to pop up or do too much," Young said. "The goal was really just to get on base and see what we could do together as a team."
Grace Birk retired all three batters she faced in the final inning, including a strikeout-throwout double play after a leadoff walk, before a foul out ended the game.
Across both games, NSU recorded seven multi-hit performances and five multi-RBI efforts. Also of note, Smith broke the program's single-season record for hit by pitches with 15. The Demons are one hit batter away from setting a new team record in the category.
