Demons rally to edge Louisiana Christian

NATCHITOCHES – Faced with a spate of midweek adversity, the Northwestern State baseball team answered affirmatively both as a group and individually Tuesday night.

The Demons shook off a slow start offensively and defensively and rallied late for a 5-4 victory against visiting Louisiana Christian at Brown-Stroud Field.

“It’s very obvious we didn’t play the best brand of baseball tonight, and we didn’t play the cleanest,” said first-year head coach Chris Bertrand, who played for current LCU skipper Mike Byrnes with the Wildcats. “You learn from those things. What you take away is our guys stared down adversity. We got (closer) Tyler Bryan back on the horse. Everyone who took the mound competed very well.

“We stared adversity in the face, and we didn’t let failure in the final four innings of the game continue from the first five.”

Through five innings, the Demons (7-18) had mustered only two hits and trailed 2-1 with their lone run coming when Reese Lipoma was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored when a pickoff throw glanced off second baseman Hunter Gotreaux’s glove and caromed into right-center field.

Northwestern State also had played the role of generous host on the defensive side, committing errors on back-to-back sacrifice bunts in the third inning that helped the Wildcats build a 2-0 lead.

Once LCU, which was playing the game as an exhibition, added its third run on a Gotreaux RBI single in the sixth, the Demons awakened from their offensive doldrums with some assistance from the visitors.

Daniel Burroway reached on a two-base error to start the sixth, setting up a two-run inning in which Colin Rains (single) and Balin Valentine (double) delivered back-to-back, run-scoring hits to tie the game at 3.

“We didn’t come out as focused as we needed to, but we showed some toughness that I think we’ll be able to take with us this weekend against McNeese,” Valentine said. “We really bore down and got us some momentum.”

After the Wildcats regained the lead on Tyler McKenna’s two-out double in the seventh, the Demons quickly answered back and took their first lead of the game on Rocco Gump’s sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Gump’s go-ahead sac fly followed Burroway’s game-tying RBI single, which came three batters after Reese Lipoma’s leadoff double eluded a lunging Logan Bertucci in left field.

“I went up there with a plan to get my swing off and got a pitch over the plate,” Gump said. “Once we had one good thing happen, it all got rolling in the right direction.”

It ended in the right direction as Bryan recovered from a tough ninth inning against Southeastern on Saturday afternoon – and it took a defensive play from him to do so.

With two on and two outs after Noah Gaspard’s slow grounder settled on the third-base line, Bryan got more weak contact from Harrison Waxley and was able to field the ball barehanded and nip Waxley with a strong throw to notch his second save of the season.

Lipoma and Valentine each went 2-for-4, combining for four of the Demons’ seven hits.

The Demons return to action Thursday night when they open a three-game Southland Conference series at McNeese. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

Northwestern State 5, Louisiana Christian 4
LCU 002 001 100 – 4 12 3
NSU 00 002 20x – 5 7 2
W – Bryce Leonard (1-2). L – Coleman Haltom. S – Tyler Bryan (2). 2B – LC, Tyler McKenna, Gabe Spedale, Hunter Gotreaux. NSU, Reese Lipoma, Balin Valentine. 3B – NSU, Valentine. Highlights: LCU, Nicholas Brunet 2-4; McKenna 2-4, 2B, RBI; Gotreaux 2-3, 2B, RBI. NSU, Lipoma 2-4, 2B; Valentine 2-4, 2B, 3B, RBI.
Records: Louisiana Christian 22-7; Northwestern State 7-18.