HOUSTON – Northwestern State softball rides one of its most complete weekends in recent memory into the start of Southland Conference play this week.
The confidence-boosted Demons travel to Houston to face HCU in a three-game series as league action begins.
"Coming off a 4–1 weekend, I think our team is feeling confident and excited about the start of conference," head coach Jenny Fuller said. "We feel good about the progress in all phases of the game. Now we just want to carry that momentum into the Houston Christian series and play at the level that we are capable of playing."
 
The Demons (9-13) open league play on the road for the first time since 2022 when they travel to HCU (3-16) for a three-game series. That conference-opening series four years ago took the Demons to then-Houston Baptist and was the last time NSU swept a road SLC series.
 
The weekend series was moved up a day due to the projected weather forecast in the Houston area and will now feature a Thursday doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. with a single game on Friday starting at 12 p.m.
 
All games will air on ESPN+.
 
The Demons hit .339 as a team across five games in the City of Lights Classic in Natchitoches this past weekend, leading to that 4-1 record. That average also includes being no-hit in an improbable 5-3 win against Missouri State. They scored 40 total runs, had 12 extra-base hits and struck out only nine times.
 
"I think we gained a ton of confidence this weekend," Makynlie Jones, whose three-run home run in the finale led to a 7-2 win against UAPB, said. "We won a game without getting a hit. It kind of shows us that anything is possible and we can do it if we set our minds to it."
 
The win against the Bears marks the first time since 2024 that any team in the country has won a game will being no-hit. That year Missouri won a 1-0 game against Texas A&M-Commerce, now East Texas A&M, where both starting pitchers threw a no-hitter. 
 
All indications suggest that the five runs scored by the Demons in the game are the most without a hit in NCAA history.
 
Of the 40 hits the Demons collected across the four other games, JT Smith had four of NSU's extra-base knocks on the weekend and reached base in more than 60 percent of her plate appearances. She finished the five-game weekend with an OPS of 1.838 and drove in three runs in back-to-back games to finish the fourth week of the season tied with Makynlie Jones for the team lead with 14 RBI.
 
Smith and Jones are two players flirting with a .300 batting average entering this weekend, both seeing their averages jump more than 30 points after successful homestand at the plate. They look to join the leading trio of Brynn Daniel (.393), Britt Bourgoyne (.327) and Hayden Andrews (.325) hitting over the .300 mark on the season.
 
Daniel ranks seventh in the conference in batting this year and is second in the conference with a .528 on-base percentage. Her 14 walks this year are fourth most in the league. With Sister Arnold's 12 walks this year, NSU and McNeese are the only teams with more than one player ranked in the top 10 in the conference in walks.
 
The 77 walks drawn by the Demons are the second most by a team, only behind McNeese's 113.
 
The offensive outburst was more than enough support for a defense and pitching staff that were near perfect on the weekend.
 
Mattison Buster picked up two wins in two complete game performances, including her first career no-hitter, as well as a save in the finale. Brooklynn Stohler got her first win of the season and Grace Birk and Erin Kirkland combined for more than seven innings of shutout work.
 
Buster earned conference pitcher of the week honors after allowing just two earned runs on six total hits in 14 2/3 innings in the circle. She now ranks in the top 10 in the conference in ERA, opponent batting average, and strikeouts and leads the league in wins and innings pitched.
 
HCU (3-16) enters the opening week of conference play after a 1-4 weekend in New Mexico where they lost the final two games of the weekend to an opponent the Demons are all too familiar with – New Mexico.
 
The Huskies scored two runs in each game against the Lobos but lost in run-rule fashion in five innings 11-2 before a closer 3-2 loss in the finale. The Demons went 0-3 against New Mexico across the first two weekends, including losing a pair of shutouts on opening weekend in the Getterman Classic at Baylor.
 
Madison Dominguez leads HCU with a .310 batting average coming in and paces the team with a .453 on-base percentage, thanks to her team-leading 10 walks. She is riding a nine-game hitting streak coming into the series and a 10-game reached base streak.
 
The leadoff batter and second baseman is batting .417 during her hitting streak with one multi-hit game but only one run scored during that stretch.
 
Sophomore righty Cara Pitman leads the pitching staff with 37.2 innings of work thus far, including a pair of complete games. She earned her first and only win of the season thus far three weeks ago against Lafayette, allowing three runs on three hits in 7.0 innings.
 
HCU has used five different pitchers this season, all of which have an ERA greater than 6.00 and WHIPs higher than 1.80.