BATON ROUGE – Both the Northwestern State baseball team and LSU took advantage of fifth-inning errors Tuesday night.
 
The Tigers' swing in that moment, however, was a little bit larger and turned out to be the difference in the game.
 
Jake Brown's three-run home run with two outs in the fifth inning drove in three unearned runs and lifted the Tigers to a 4-2 victory at Skip Bertman Field at Alex Box Stadium.
 
"There's something to be said about the level of competition and the level of fight our guys continue to show," third-year head coach Chris Betrand said. "That's two out of the last three years that we've played one of the best teams in the land within one swing of a ball game at their home ballpark. I'm really proud of the way our guys came ready to play and really proud of the way they competed in a close ball game in an incredible environment, but it comes down to that level of production and getting the job done in the game's biggest moments."
 
The biggest moment for both teams came in the fifth inning.
 
Tied at 1 after the teams traded solo home runs in the early innings, the Demons (23-14) struck for a run in the top of the fifth, building it with the help of two LSU errors.
 
Bryce Johnson led off with a single and took second on an errant pickoff throw from Reagan Ricken. After Mason Wray, whose first home run of the season gave Northwestern a 1-0 lead in the second inning, reached on catcher's interference, Zach White laid down a sacrifice bunt.
 
Sam Ardoin's grounder to short gave the Demons the lead before Carson Benge (1-0) escaped further trouble.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers (23-15) got the leadoff man on by virtue of the Demons' lone error of the game.
 
After Chase Prestwich (1-2) got a key fielder's choice to record the second out, Northwestern went to left-hander Jacob LeBlanc, who got ahead of left-handed hitting Jake Brown 1-2 before Brown tagged that pitch for a three-run home run to right-center field.
 
"Anytime you're able to manufacture and scratch a run against a team like this, you need to take the learning points that come from it," Bertrand said. "Hopefully, it shows you, one, that we're capable, and, two, it sets the framework of what a quality inning looks like. Not only that, but we did it with six, seven, eight, nine in our lineup. We did it with the bottom of the lineup.
 
"When the Demons get back to attacking the opponent and using all nine guys to attack, we're capable of putting together innings and ball games just like that."
 
After Brown's home run, the pitching staffs from each side took turns dancing out of trouble.
 
LeBlanc, Lucas Harrington and Carter White kept LSU off the scoreboard in the final three innings, allowing the Demons to build one final push in the eighth inning.
 
Northwestern loaded the bases before Deven Sheerin came in and got a strikeout and a foul out to end the threat. Sheerin then struck out the side in the ninth for his third save of the season.
 
"We competed in a great way, but when the game requires you to execute and be productive in order to win, we have to be better in those moments," Bertrand said. "For the first five innings of the game, our offense was those things, regardless of what's on the scoreboard. In innings six, seven, eight and nine, we struck out 11 times when they only have to collect 12 outs.
 
"The arms they rolled out in those four innings were incredible arms, but we're going to have to figure our ways to gain some productivity against great arms so that we can be successful moving forward – whether it be in the important nine games of Southland paly that are left or when we go to Arkansas or when we get the program where we need to get it."
 
The Demons return to action Friday when they open a three-game Southland Conference series at Lamar. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.
 
LSU 4, Northwestern State 2
NSU     010 010 000 – 2 5 1
LSU      001 030 00x – 4 9 3
W – Carson Benge (1-0). L – Chase Prestwich (1-2). S – Deven Sheerin (3). 2B – NSU, Thomas Marsala III. LSU, Steven Milam. HR – NSU, Mason Wray (1). LSU, Brayden Simpson (1), Jake Brown (16). Highlights: LSU, Derek Curiel 2-4; Milam 2-4, 2B: John Pearson 2-4.
Records: Northwestern State 23-14; LSU 23-15.