NATCHITOCHES – Big innings trumped consistency Sunday afternoon at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
Northwestern State scored in seven of its nine team at-bats in the Southland Conference series finale against Stephen F. Austin, but the Lumberjacks produced two big innings as SFA rallied for an 11-8 victory to salvage the final game of the series.
 
"It was kind of a weird baseball game in the fact that, I thought, we did some really good things offensively," third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "We posted a zero in the error column. We posted six other zeroes on the scoreboard. It's just death by the crooked number, and in this case, two super crooked numbers."
 
Northwestern (25-19, 16-11) opened the game with a flourish, scoring in each of the first seven innings.
 
Aside from a two-run first inning, the Demons, however, managed only one run each inning from the second through the seventh innings, which was plenty of offensive support early for Trent Hillen.
 
Making the final home start of his career, Hillen blanked the Lumberjacks (23-22, 12-12) for the first four innings before a leadoff walk to Roderic Black opened the floodgates to a five-run fifth inning.
 
Once that switch flipped, the Lumberjacks morphed back to the offense that produced 17 hits in an 11-8 Friday-night loss to open the series.
 
The momentum also flipped back and forth between dugouts after the top of the fifth.
 
Northwestern used a two-out RBI double from Brooks Leonard to regain the lead, 6-5, in the bottom of the fifth. Following Mark Henning's two-out RBI single in the top of the sixth, Thomas Marsala III gave the Demons the lead back with a solo home run in the sixth.
 
"We did have some responses," Bertrand said. "Even though we allowed the first crooked number, we came back and responded. We took the lead on multiple occasions. They fought. They had responses. Today, we just kind of got baseballed a little bit."
 
Stephen F. Austin saved its final crooked number of the series for the eighth inning. The biggest swing came from Jhett Creel, whose two-run home run off Wesley Marien (2-1) tied the game.
 
Creel's blast was the lone extra-base hit for the Lumberjacks, who followed the home run with four singles to take an 11-8 lead.
 
"We have to find ways at times to mitigate the damage, or how can we limit the damage?," Bertrand said. "Even though you're prepared for some of that stuff to happen, we have to have a response before it gets to, to, you know, that, that super of a crooked number."
 
Reid Bowyer closed the game with two scoreless innings of relief, stranding a runner on third to end the eighth and getting a key double play to erase Michael McAloose's leadoff single.
 
The Demons return to action Tuesday when they open a two-game, midweek series at Arkansas. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
 
Stephen F. Austin 11, Northwestern State 8
SFA       000 051 050 – 11 16 5
NSU     211 111 00 – 8 10 0
W –- Kadin Munson (2-0). L – Wesley Marien (2-1). S – Reid Bowyer (2). 2B – NSU, Brooks Leonard. 3B – NSU, Joe Siervo. HR – SFA, Jhett Creel (3). NSU, Thomas Marsala III (11). Highlights: SFA, Cermodrick Bland 2-5, RBI; Julian Swift 2-5, RBI; Mark Henning 4-5, 2 RBIs; Juan Cantua 2-4, RBI; Coby DeJesus 2-5, RBI. NSU, Siervo 3-4, 3B, RBI.
Records: Stephen F. Austin 23-22, 12-12; Northwestern State 25-19, 16-11.